Jasudavicius Dominates Blanchfield in Edmonton, Demands Silva Title Shot

EDMONTON — Jasmine Jasudavicius spent the week telling anyone who would listen that she was next for the women's flyweight title. On Saturday night at Rogers Place, she made it impossible to argue otherwise. The Canadian outgrappled one of the division's most feared grapplers, dominating Erin Blanchfield across the first two rounds of UFC Fight Night 291's co-main event before closing out a unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) — the biggest win of her career, secured as a +260 underdog.

The grappler gets outgrappled

This was billed as a No. 1 contender eliminator, and the stylistic story was supposed to favour Blanchfield. The New Jersey native came to Edmonton with a reputation built on suffocating top control and submission hunting — wins over former champions Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade had carried her to the edge of a title shot she felt was overdue.

Jasudavicius attacked the reputation head-on. From the opening bell she refused to let Blanchfield dictate where the fight took place, and the numbers tell the story of the next fifteen minutes: four takedowns landed to Blanchfield's zero, 6 minutes 52 seconds of control time to 13 seconds, three submission attempts to none, and a 50-22 edge in total strikes.

How the rounds unfolded

The first round began ominously for the home favourite. Blanchfield applied effective early pressure, pumping the jab and cutting off the cage. Then Jasudavicius ducked a punch, changed levels and landed the fight's first takedown — and the bout was never the same. She took Blanchfield's back, locked in a body triangle and spent nearly three minutes hunting chokes, switching between rear-naked choke and face-crank attempts while Blanchfield desperately defended.

The second followed the same pattern. Blanchfield tried an early takedown of her own; Jasudavicius stuffed it, then turned a long scramble into another takedown, another back-take, another body triangle. An arm-triangle attempt came and went, full mount followed, and a burst of ground-and-pound closed a round she had owned. A case could be made for 10-8.

Needing a finish, Blanchfield finally found her rhythm in the third, pressuring with combinations and landing the cleaner blows as Jasudavicius slowed. But the Canadian refused to be drawn into a firefight. With less than 90 seconds left she clinched, lifted Blanchfield into the air and dumped her to the canvas, took the back and rode out the position until the horn. Blanchfield took the round; the fight was already gone, 29-28 on all three scorecards from Sal D'Amato, Thomas Collins and Junichiro Kamijo.

The long road to Edmonton

This fight was almost two months old before it happened. The bout was originally scheduled for UFC 330 in Philadelphia on August 15, only for Blanchfield to withdraw with an injury — the first withdrawal of her UFC career. The matchup was preserved and rebuilt for Edmonton, and the delay may have helped the Canadian more than anyone realised.

Jasudavicius (16-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) arrived on the back of a career reset. A five-fight winning streak ended last October in Vancouver when recent title challenger Manon Fiorot stopped her inside a round. She answered in April, outpointing Karine Silva in Winnipeg to steady herself — and with Saturday's win she is now 7-1 across her last eight octagon appearances, the Niagara Top Team product from St. Catharines, Ontario coming good at exactly the right moment.

Blanchfield (14-3 MMA, 8-2 UFC), meanwhile, had won two straight, outpointing Namajunas and then Tracy Cortez, and had spent the week talking about the title shot she believed was hers. Instead she leaves Edmonton with her path to the belt suddenly much longer.

The title picture

The stakes were enormous because the division has been turned upside down. Longtime champion Valentina Shevchenko was forced to vacate the belt with an injury that could sideline her for up to a year, and earlier this month Natalia Silva claimed the vacant crown with a unanimous-decision win over Wang Cong at UFC 332.

Jasudavicius has history with the new champion — painful history. Silva beat her by unanimous decision back in 2022, in what was the Brazilian's UFC debut. It is a loss the Canadian has clearly never forgotten. Before the fight she said she had wanted Silva to win the belt "because I could see our paths crossing again," and at Wednesday's media day she was explicit: "I'm next. Come on, I should get the shot after this one."

After the win, she said it straight into Paul Felder's microphone: "I feel unbelievable. I want to cross paths with Natalia Silva again. We have a history."

What comes next

No title fight has been booked, and the UFC has made no announcement. But Jasudavicius now owns the strongest argument in a wide-open division: a dominant win over a top contender, in her home country, with a ready-made storyline against the champion. For Blanchfield, the arithmetic is harsher. A third straight win would have made her undeniable; instead, she must rebuild — and the division, suddenly, belongs to the Canadian.