Strawweight contender Juliana “Ju Thai” de Lima Carneiro picked up her second straight UFC victory in a featured preliminary bout tonight at UFC Fight Night 67: “Condit vs Alves” in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil. Lima defeated UFC newcomer Ericka Almeida, who suffered the first loss of her career.

Lima controlled the majority of tonight’s fight from top position in Almeida’s guard, and she avoided Almeida’s savvy submission game by landing some nice ground and pound. Almeida looked to rally on the feet in round three, but Lima smothered her on the mat once again and cruised to victory.

Lima (8-2-0) was struck by a lunging right hook from Almeida (7-1-0) in the opening minute, and the fighters scrambled on the ground after Almeida threw Lima to the mat. Lima countered a headlock with an inverted triangle choke attempt from her back, and she took top position in Almeida’s guard soon after. She punched from the top until Almeida attacked with an armbar, but Lima escaped and landed more ground and pound before the end of the round.

The middle stanza was more of the same, and Lima once again dominated the action on the mat after taking Almeida down in the opening seconds. She pinned Almeida against the base of the cage and landed punches until the fighters were stood up. Lima finished the round strong with knees to the body. Almeida pressed forward with punches in the final round and she snapped Lima’s head back with a hard right hand, but Lima took her back down and landed short strikes from the top until the end of the fight.

One judge returned an absurd 30-25 scorecard for Lima, while the remaining two had more sensible 30-27 scores. With the well-deserved Unanimous Decision victory, Lima takes another step towards a potential rematch with UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk, who outpointed Lima at UFC on FOX 12 in July.

Winner: Juliana Lima by Unanimous Decision (30-25, 30-27, 30-27) after three rounds. She improves to 8-2-0.

(Photo Credit: UFC)