Erin Blanchfield just made her UFC debut at the young age of 22 and put on a flawless performance against Sarah Alpar at UFC Vegas 37. Blanchfield is a former EBI champion after she won the 12th edition of the event back when she was just an eighteen year-old purple belt in BJJ so she came into the UFC Flyweight division as one of the most proficient grapplers almost immediately. After starting training Jiu-Jitsu at the age of 7, Blanchfield stuck with the martial art and added in kickboxing soon after so that she could compete in both before she even hit her teenage years.
After over a decade of training in Jiu-Jitsu, Blanchfield was promoted to black belt by the legendary instructor Karel ‘Silver Fox’ Pravec just a matter of months ago. This meant that her fight against Sarah Alpar was actually the first time she faced any form of competition as a black belt and she showed the world just how good her grappling really is. Erin Blanchfield was originally signed to the UFC to make her debut prior to being promoted however, as she was given a contract on very short notice when Bea Malecki pulled out of a fight against Norma Dumont at UFC on ABC: Till v Vettori.
Dumont ended up missing weight by 3.5lbs and the entire fight was scrapped from the card instead, meaning that Blanchfield was given the opportunity to properly prepare for her first fight at the highest levels of MMA. After dominating Alpar for three rounds, the judges awarded her a unanimous decision and her professional MMA record moved to 7-1 with her riding a four-fight win-streak. The future certainly looks bright for her but at the age of 22, the best approach now would logically be for her to take her ascent up the Flyweight division at a slow and steady pace so that she can make the best of any potential title shot in the future.
The full event replay of UFC Vegas 37, including the debut of Erin Blanchfield, will be available to watch on UFC FightPass, click here to subscribe and watch.
