Blanchfield makes tough climb in the MMA divisional rankings

Erin Blanchfield arrived in Singapore last week as one of the hottest up-and-comers in the UFC. She was coming off a big upset win in February, in which she not only defeated former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade but finished her. It was Blanchfield’s fifth straight win inside the Octagon, her third submission in a row, and getting her arm raised one more time this past weekend seemed a sure way to earn the 24-year-old a title bout.

But Taila Santos would not go away easily. A little over a year after giving then-champion Valentina Shevchenko all she could handle, Santos took it to Blanchfield early on with crisp striking and stout takedown defense.

Blanchfield kept coming, though. Despite going 0-14 on takedown defenses, she was relentless with her forward pressure and clinch game, and it wore down Santos to the point that Blanchfield — who’d been pieced up early on — was getting the better of the standup by fight’s end.

The way the fight played out showed us something new with Blanchfield. And she knew it.

“These tough fights, I always hope to do them better. Get in there, don’t get hurt at all, finish the fight,” Blanchfield told reporters afterward. “But tough fights like this are what make you grow.”

For her grit alone, Blanchfield earned a bump up in the ESPN women’s flyweight rankings, leapfrogging Manon Fiorot into the No. 3 position. Fiorot has an opportunity to reverse that this Saturday, though, when she fights former strawweight champ Rose Namajunas.