For some, getting the call to make your UFC debut on less than a week’s notice is both a blessing and a curse. Few turn it down, but it still puts those who take it behind the eight ball, wondering if they’ll be able to deal with everything attached to a night in the big show and still perform to their best.
Yet Viviane Araujo wasn’t rattled in the slightest before – or during – her May bout against Talita Bernardo. Stepping in for Melissa Gatto, Araujo agreed to jump two weight classes to fight her fellow Brazilian at bantamweight in Rio de Janeiro and all she did on fight night was dazzle the fans in attendance before knocking Bernardo out in the third round.