Amanda Ribas: O Lindo Terror de Varginha

Varginha is a city located in the southeast of Brazil, 300 miles away from big cities like Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The town is mostly known for its UFO incident in 1996, but today we’re not going to focus on this. When I hear about Varginha, I think of the hottest prospect in the UFC strawweight division. She was born there in 1993, her name is Amanda Limborço Alcântara Ribas. 

Last Saturday at UFC Brasilia, many Brazilian fighters performed well against foreign opponents. The standouts were Renato Moicano, Charles Oliveira, and Amanda. Leading up to the fights I wrote about the careers of Oliveira and Moicano, so it felt natural to take the time to focus on Amanda, who looked like a star in her fight against Randa Markos. 

Just like Renato, Amanda trains at American Top Team. While Carneiro gets to train on a daily basis with the likes of Dustin Poirier, Jorge Masvidal and Edson Barboza, Ribas has great teammates like Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Nina Ansaroff and Amanda Nunes. Joining ATT did wonders for Carneiro, and it appears that she’s following the same path.

VARGINHA

Amanda started to train martial arts at a young age. Her father is Marcelo Ribas, a muay thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu teacher who has his own gym in Varginha. It’s natural that the young girl started to train Jiu-Jitsu and Judo. After running through the girl’s brackets at tournaments, she started to compete against the boys, and she kept on winning. She accrued so many medals, so many trophies, that Marcelo had nowhere to put them. She won the state championship then the nationals, she even reached the Olympic tryouts. That was, until her whole world crashed down like thunder.

Marcelo’s daughter and her love for martial arts were seriously challenged after a series of knee injuries. The girl who spent all her life competing could not compete, at least for a while. The dream of taking over the world, to travel, was now erased by the sadness of being reduced to a bed in her hometown of Varginha. She never lost motivation and never lacked support, the same boys she was defeating as a kid were now big teenagers who cheered for her recovery and her future. Amanda kept beating the odds, she came back even better after the injuries and took on a new challenge - fighting in mixed martial arts. 

With extreme confidence in her background in Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Ribas went to Vegas in 2014 and won the IMMAF world championship. One more trophy. Amanda did not waste a second with her career and started to fight pro for a local promotion - Pentagon Combat. Three fights and three finishes later, she signed with the prestigious Brazilian MMA promotion Jungle Fight, which was founded by Wallid Ismail in 2003. Renato Moicano, Pedro Munhoz, Charles Oliveira, Vicente Luque, John Lineker, to name a few, all fought for this promotion at some point before moving to the UFC.

She won her debut via unanimous decision and fought again three months later in Rio de Janeiro. Amanda opened this fight with a series of jabs and right straights as she pressured her opponent, who threw a kick that Ribas caught in order to take the fight to the ground. Thirty seconds into the fight, she achieved full mount, took the back, put the hooks in and secured the rear naked choke. Even though her striking was very stiff, her grappling background was more than enough to get the victory. Amanda used the right strategy in pressuring her opponent in order to get the fight to the ground.

In her next fight, Amanda faced another current UFC fighter in Polyana Viana, she lost by knockout in round 1. Both ladies were throwing recklessly, but Amanda lost her balance after overextending and took a big counter right on the chin that rocked her pretty badly. Polyana did a great job finishing the fight just after that. For once, Amanda tasted how sour defeat is, but she came back much better after this.

She took some time off and fought seven months later for another promotion named Max Fight. There she won by TKO. There was still a lot of work to do in the striking department, but we can already see the improvement compared to her last fight. It was with her judo throws that she got the fight to the ground before finishing in violent fashion.

AR1.gif

Now 6-1 in MMA with 5 victories by finish, she signed a UFC contract and moved to Florida after receiving an invitation to train at American Top Team.

UFC

As she prepared for her UFC debut, Amanda had to face another layoff. Her previously injured knee was fine, but she was suspended by USADA and “accepted” a 24 month suspension. She always denied using illegal substances and vowed to prove her innocence. During her suspension, she went back to Brazil and trained in every city she could go to, focusing on her craft and getting ready for that delayed UFC debut. USADA reduced her suspension when they discovered that the traces came from a tainted supplement. Ribas called that suspension “A gift from God” because it gave her time to improve, she was more than ready for her awaited UFC debut. 

Finally, on June 20th, 2019 in Minneapolis, she fought Emily Whitmire (4-2). It had been a little over three years since her last fight.

It only took a few seconds for the audience to realize that the stiffness in Amanda’s striking was gone completely, she was flowing and relaxed, moving her upper body as she pressured Whitmire. A minute into the fight, and Amanda already had her back with the body triangle secured. She switched hands for the choke, punching intermittently, working to get that finish. Whitmire defended the hands well and eventually reversed the position, postured up and attempted to throw flurries, but Amanda did a good job on her back avoiding any damage. All the while, she was attacking the heels, trying to sweep the American. Whitmire finally settled into Amanda’s guard. 

Amanda started round 2 the same way she started the fight. After landing some good body-head combinations, she got the double underhooks, took Emily to the ground, transitioned to full mount, unleashed a barrage of heavy punches, and sunk in the rear naked choke as soon as Whitmire gave her back. It was flawless.

“I’m a black belt in Judo in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but a white belt in English! I love being in the cage, since I’m a kid I’m sleeping in the cage and my gloves are my pillows” Amanda Ribas

Despite being still very young at 26 years old, Amanda didn’t want to waste time. When she was offered the opportunity to face Mackenzie Dern three months later in Florida, she gladly accepted. Dern was undefeated and also a huge name in the strawweight division. Mackenzie’s successful background in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu made her an exciting challenge for Ribas.

When it came time to fight, it was clear Amanda’s striking was so much sharper than Mackenzie’s, who put too much weight behind the right hand. She was looking so desperately to land a big 1-2, but Amanda stayed on the outside, used her jab as bait for Dern to throw the right hand and then countered her with beautiful right hooks and right straights.

AR3.gif

Dern’s right hand was countered the same way at least six times in round 1, and every counter made her back away. Mackenzie tried to get the fight to the ground as she shot a single leg under Amanda’s jab, but she got back up in a few seconds.

When Dern circled towards Amanda’s left side, the Brazilian threw a few spinning back kicks to the body. Dern definitely slowed down during the fight due to Amanda’s body work. Amanda’s jab was very educated. She used it not only to draw out the right hand, but to set up body shots. She also used that pawing jab to blind Mackenzie while she took an angle on her. We saw constant movement from Amanda, she looked so much different than a few years ago, moving her head all the time, getting in and out of range quickly, showcasing great timing on counters. Her striking improvement was likely due to training with fighters like Joanna and Nina Ansaroff. On top of all this, Ribas is nasty when she gets you hurt, she won’t hesitate to swarm with volume. Athletically, the speed advantage for Amanda in that fight was incredible.

AR4.gif

Look how well Ribas manipulated Dern here. She threw a jab and stepped out of range as Dern tried to counter with the left hook. Ribas moved back in range and on the same beat, she stepped up with a second jab and was out of range for Dern to counter her with the left hand again. Right away, she re-entered the pocket, feinted the jab, landed a right hand to the body followed by that big left hook over Dern’s counter, then followed with another right hand behind it that landed. Dern did latch onto a bodylock, but Amanda sent her to the ground with a hip throw with shocking ease.

The fight went to the ground on a few occasions but Amanda stopped most single leg attempts from the Californian. What happened in round 1, happened the rest of the fight. Dern got more and more eager to land something big and was countered easily by the much improved girl from Varginha. At the end of the fight, Amanda had landed more than 70 significant strikes while Dern landed less than 20. Complete shutdown.

After that victory, Amanda fought the UFC veteran Randa Markos in Brasilia. For Markos, it was her 14th UFC fight, yet she was a massive underdog. After an even minute on the feet, Markos slipped and Ribas joined her on the ground, passing Markos’ guard fairly easily, moving from half guard to full mount in seconds, attacking with some nice elbows against the Canadian. Markos managed to get back to half guard, find an underhook and get back on her feet, but in the process she ate two big knees to the body. Amanda’s kicks to the body were a huge part of the fight, she landed two consecutive spinning back kicks to the body before taking her down to half guard. She grabbed an overhook and framed Randa’s head to set up a big series of elbows.

AR5.gif

Randa tried to blitz Amanda, but when charged, Ribas didn’t back up in a straight line. She took angles right away and fired back, or used her opponent’s momentum to hip throw. No matter which position Amanda is in, she’s always maintaining a high output. Late in round 3 Amanda was taken down, and Randa had top control for over a minute, but eventually she was swept and Amanda finished very strong, landing another series of big elbows on top.

AR6.gif

Randa Markos is a solid strawweight but she had absolutely nothing for Amanda, just like Dern and Whitmire. That was a great performance, but her next fight has to be someone ranked near the top of the division. So far it’s been too easy for her and it would be very interesting to see her face someone like Tatiana Suarez or Marina Rodriguez. We need to see her against someone who could pressure her a lot and go at least even on the ground. Personally I’m super excited to see Amanda back in the cage and I have nothing short of championship expectations for what the cute little terror from Varginha can become.

HFC.JPG

What are your thoughts on Amanda Ribas?