Top-ranked strawweight Jessica “Jag” Aguilar captured her first major MMA title in her World Series of Fighting debut tonight at WSOF 8: “Gaethje vs Patishnock” in Hollywood, Florida. Aguilar submitted Alida Gray with an arm-triangle choke to become WSOF Women’s Strawweight Champion.
Tonight’s title bout was Aguilar’s first fight since she defeated Megumi “Mega Megu” Fujii in a controversial rematch at Vale Tudo Japan 3rd in October. With a quick and impressive victory tonight, Aguilar extended her winning streak to eight and she remains number one at 115 pounds.
Aguilar (17-4-0) closed the distance with Gray (4-1-0) right away and clinched in search of a takedown. She took Gray’s back and suplexed her to the mat, but Gray returned to her feet against the cage. Aguilar got Gray back down and moved to half-guard, then postured up with some solid elbow strikes and looked to set up an arm-triangle choke. Within seconds, Aguilar locked on the choke and passed to side control, forcing Gray to submit at the 2:45 mark of the opening round.
Aguilar’s successful World Series of Fighting debut earned her both the WSOF Women’s Strawweight Championship and also the distinction of becoming the first female fighter to win a fight inside the WSOF cage. With most of the top-ranked female strawweights contracted to compete on The Ultimate Fighter 20 later this year, competition might be scarce for Aguilar in WSOF, but she remains at the top of the 115-pound women’s division thanks to her victory over the highly-touted Gray tonight.
Winner: Jessica Aguilar by Submission (Arm-Triangle Choke) at 2:45 of round one. She improves to 17-4-0 and becomes the first WSOF Women’s Strawweight Champion.
(Photo Credit: Bellator)
She is going to lose that top ranking and she knows it. She is whining like a child about it because she knows everyone will see the UFC champ as #1. Mma and wmma fans don’t watch or care about WSOF. Gray never belonged in the cage with her and looked lost. Bad fight for WMMA becuase Gray was borderline top 10 and looked like an amateur. And jag’s opponents are only going to get worse and harder to find.
You can’t blame jag for not knowing UFC was starting a 115 division. Rotten timing. But you can blame her for ducking Invicta where all the talent was at the time. Now her career is stuck while TUF will make stars and she’ll be forgotten.
I kind of agree. As much as I admire JAG, I think top Invicta strawweights (Esparza, Gadelha, Torres and Calderwood) would likely beat her more often than not.
In fact, Gadelha, Torres and Esparza happen to be more athletic (and stronger, IMO), and Gadelha and Esparza seem to be better at her own game than she…
Besides two iffy decisions against Megumi Fujii (who has been struggling against some severe injuries the past years), JAG hasn’t faced any of the top ranked fighters.
Not going to Invicta was a bad move, IMO, and now she is stuck.