One of MMA’s brightest female prospects, Viviane “Sucuri” Pereira, made a successful Octagon debut tonight at UFC 206: “Holloway vs Pettis” in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Pereira overcame a significant size disadvantage en route to victory over former title challenger Valérie “Trouble” Létourneau.

Pereira struggled to find her range on the feet early in the fight against bantamweight-turned-strawweight Létourneau, but she secured a key takedown in round two and controlled the clinch battles in the final round. Pereira’s rally proved to be just enough to earn her a Split Decision win.

Pereira (12-0-0) opened the action tonight with a body kick, but Létourneau (8-6-0) caught it and took her down after landing a series of right hands. She postured up with punches to the head and body until Pereira scrambled back up to her feet, and Létourneau finished the round by landing short knees and punches in a clinch.

Létourneau picked her shots with kicks and punches from a distance in round two until Pereira cracked her with a lead left hook and tripped her to the mat after clinching against the cage. Pereira spent most of the round striking from the top in Létourneau’s guard until Létourneau kicked her off and rose to her feet in the final minute.

Pereira countered Létourneau’s jabs with lead left hooks and leg kicks in the final round. Létourneau threw kicks to the body and Pereira answered back with knees in close and a hard right hand. She clinched with Létourneau and landed a nice flurry of punches before the bell sounded to end the fight.

One judge saw the bout 29-28 for Létourneau, but the remaining two both had it 29-28 in favour of Pereira. While it was not her best showing, Pereira kept her unblemished record intact by defeating the former UFC women’s strawweight title challenger.

Winner: Viviane Pereira by Split Decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29) after three rounds. She improves to 12-0-0.

(Photo Credit: UFC)