WSOF Women’s Strawweight Champion Jessica “Jag” Aguilar retained her title with a five-round Unanimous Decision victory tonight at World Series of Fighting 15: “Branch vs Okami” in Tampa, Florida. Aguilar defeated Brazilian rising star Kalindra Faria in a competitive bout on tonight’s main card.

Faria, previously under an exclusive deal with XFC who announced today that they will be suing WSOF for breach of contract, was delayed en route to Florida due to visa issues. The talented fighter got to the U.S. and put on a strong showing in defeat, but Aguilar took home a well-deserved victory.

Aguilar (19-4-0) put together one-two combinations that were met by stiff jabs and hooks from Faria (15-4-1) in the opening two minutes. Punches were exchanged and Aguilar countered a right hand with a body kick. She avoided a spinning back elbow and landed a flurry of punches, then clinched with Faria and threw knees to the body until the bell sounded.

The second round began with a takedown from Aguilar, but she was unable to hold Faria down for long and Faria landed some nice punches after working back to her feet. Aguilar landed a hard right hand, followed by a one-two and a knee. Faria took her back and briefly dragged her down, but Aguilar returned to her feet and the round ended in a clinch.

Faria threw Aguilar to the mat in round three, but Aguilar regained her footing and secured a takedown of her own. Faria tried for an armbar from the bottom, but Aguilar avoided danger and punished her with punches. The fight returned to the feet again and Aguilar landed a nice knee. Faria responded with knees of her own before the end of the round.

Early in round four, Faria stuffed a takedown and she landed a knee and a spinning back kick. Aguilar attempted another takedown and landed a combination soon after, but Faria fired back with a flurry of punches to the body. Aguilar finally got her down and moved to mount. She unloaded with punches from the top and tried to trap Faria in a guillotine choke, but Faria’s defence was solid. She battled back to her feet and kept Aguilar on the defensive with punches until time expired.

Likely sensing that she was behind on the scorecards, Faria was more aggressive with her striking in round five and she won the early exchanges. Aguilar missed with wild spinning backfists and Faria countered nicely with crisp punches to the head and body. Aguilar scored a takedown against the cage, but she was unable to land much of anything from the top and Faria stood back up. She finished the round strong by backing Aguilar up with punches, knees and front kicks.

Faria’s rally in round five was not enough for her to steal back the victory. Scores were 49-45 across the board for Aguilar, who has now won ten straight bouts and improved to 3-0 inside the WSOF cage. Faria’s 11-fight winning streak was snapped by tonight’s decision defeat.

Winner: Jessica Aguilar by Unanimous Decision (49-45, 49-45, 49-45) after five rounds. She improves to 19-4-0 and remains the WSOF Women’s Strawweight Champion.

(Photo Credit: Bellator)