On March 9th Katlyn Chookagian and Maycee Barber will fight it out in the flyweight category in Miami, Florida.
After Barber’s foot surgery, she’ll be hoping for an easier fight to ease her back in. Being Chookagian’s first fight in 17 months, it’s certainly going to be an interesting fight building up to the main event everyone is waiting for Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera. The bantamweight championship is certainly intriguing as the fierce rivals battle it out, O’Malley attempting to defend his title whilst Vera fighting to take it from him.
Katlyn Chookagian aka Blonde Fighter
Chookagian has won four of the last five fights she’s fought and has a total of 18 wins under her belt with only 4 losses.
Chookagian is coming back from a unanimous decision loss to Manon Fiorot which broke her win streak of four fights at UFC 280, a streak she’ll want to get started again with a potential win against Barber. Due to Chookagian being quite a bit taller than Barber, she has a more impressive reach with both her arms and legs. Katlyn Chookagian is sometimes known as Katlyn Cerminara so if you’re newer to UFC and see the two names, they are the same person.
Height: 5’9” (175 cm)
Weight: 127.50 lbs (57.8 kgs)
Country: USA
Maycee Barber aka The Future
Barber is a less experienced fighter but with a bright future ahead of her with her more aggressive nature, she’ll be hoping to end the fight as soon as possible with these tactics. So far she has won 13 fights and lost 2 and won both of her fights in 2023, setting her up strongly - Barber will be hoping to continue this winning streak.
After her foot surgery, Barber is hoping to ease back into this fight, hoping it’s not too challenging but she’s certainly not expecting Chookagian to lay down and take a beating - she’ll put up quite the fight. Barber will be hoping that her more aggressive attitude and confrontational nature can combat the advantages Chookagian has over her, including height.
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Weight: 126 lbs (57 kgs)
Country: USA
Odds
The odds favour Barber to win but all good bettors know that the odds aren’t the be-all-end-all, if you’re dead set on Chookagian and confident in her win then it’s certainly a possibility and you’ll end up with more cash in your pocket if you bet and she does win.
The odds from the betting sites according to Topbettingsites.ie currently have Chookagian having +142 and Barber having -170 which isn’t as big a difference as seen with other fights on the night but definitely to be taken into account when placing any bets.
Lineup UFC 299
The lineup is confirmed and we are in for quite the night, with the finale featuring the hot-anticipated clash between Sean O’Malley (USA) vs. Marlon Vera (Ecuador). Other fights include the lightweight bout between Dustin Poirier (USA) and Benoît Saint-Denis (France) and the welterweight bout between Gilbert Burns (Brazil) and Jack Della Maddalena (Australia).
Further down in the prelims, there’s Katlyn Chookagian (USA) vs Maycee Barber (USA) in the flyweight category along with Mateusz Gamrot (Poland) vs Rafael dos Anjos (Brazil) in the lightweight category.
Further down again is Joanne Wood (Scotland) vs Maryna Moroz (Ukraine) in the women’s flyweight bout, completing the two women’s fights at UFC 299.
There are certainly some engaging pairings on the night with plenty of opportunities to place some bets.
The main event - Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera.
This upcoming fight will be exciting and fast-paced due to the high stakes of O’Malley having to defend his title against Vera. With so much to lose, he’ll certainly come out roaring, Vera doing the same, grabbing at the coveted title.
O’Malley is from the USA whilst Vera is from Ecuador and they’re very equally matched with similar heights, weights, and arm and leg reach. However, the odds favour Malley with negative odds but if you bet on Vera and he pulls through, taking the title then your returns would be much more.
With the title already in hand, Malley is the favourite to win but it’s certainly not set in stone with these rivals as Vera has beaten him before and can again.
