Paige VanZant, Rose Namajunas and the High-Stakes of Making History

This Saturday, the UFC will attempt to make history with UFC 194, an absurdly stacked card highlighted by a duo of anticipated title fights and appearances by some of the game's most fearsome competitors. Two days before this massive pay-per-view event occurs, however, the organization will broadcast a very different, but similarly historic event on its subscription streaming service, UFC Fight Pass. Headlined by a strawweight showdown between Paige VanZant and Rose Namajunas, the Thursday-night Fight Pass card marks the first UFC event headlined by a non-title women's bout.

We've said it before, but really, the more opportunities we have to say it the better: We've come a long way from Dana White's infamous 2011 assurance that women would "never" fight in the UFC.

Of course, there's a lot more to this Thursday-night card than its historical significance. Its main event pits two of the strawweight division's brightest young prospects in a bout that will push the winner to the cusp of title contention in the Joanna Jedrzejczyk ruled weight class. Yet while Namajunas is actually the higher-ranked fighter of the two (she currently holds the division's number-three spot, compared to VanZant's seventh-ranked station) the spotlight has shone far more brightly on VanZant in the buildup to the bout.

A staple of Sacramento, California's Team Alpha Male, which houses monsters like Urijah Faber, Chad Mendes, and Joseph Benavidez, VanZant is among the UFC's fastest rising stars—and it's easy to understand why. The peppy 21-year-old, who sits at 6-1 overall, is the owner of a style that's impossible not to love; one based on boundless heart, relentless forward motion, and a dizzying striking output that has seen her outland her three most recent opponents by a 531-172 margin. And of course, she's got good looks on her side. In a sport where athletes, both male and female, compete in glorified beach attire, that never hurts. Yes, with three UFC wins in the books, and charisma to boot, the young strawweight seems to be teetering on the edge of superstardom. For her fans and haters alike, that's an easy thing to get worked up about.

Yet VanZant's continued rise is far from certain. Her path, after all, is currently blocked by Milwaukee's Namajunas; a fighter who has spent the majority of her career with the apt nickname "Thug."

Though the 23-year-old Namajunas currently sits at an easy-to-dismiss 3-2, she's as dangerous a competitor as the strawweight class currently has to offer. All three of her professional victories have come by way of submission—two via rear-naked choke, and the third via 12-second, flying armbar. Then, of course, there were her three submission triumphs on The Ultimate Fighter 20, which propelled her to the tournament finals and the first-ever UFC strawweight title bout, opposite Carla Esparza. And though she would come up short in that bout, the fact remains that she is one of the division's most proficient submission specialists—a skill she backs up with a rangy and unpredictable striking toolkit.

Last but not least, there's Namajunas' x-factor: a newfound focus so potent that it drove her to part ways with her enviably lustrous locks. Now rocking a buzz cut, the dynamic strawweight explained the hairstyle change-up in a post on her Instagram, stating: "It's a fight, not a beauty pageant. Shit's in my way at practice…cut it off." Not that there are any concrete correlations between a fighter's hair and their prolonged success, but Namajunas is clearly taking her training seriously.

Though the odds-makers have her pegged as an underdog, Namajunas possesses the skills and drive to stop the Paige VanZant hype train in its tracks. As Holly Holm recently proved, no fighter, no matter how mountainous their hype, is immune to the upset. Namajunas can attest to this fact herself, having been pegged as "the next Ronda Rousey" until she lost to Esparza.

In short, whatever happens on Thursday night, this fight is a special one. It represents a highly competitive clash of styles between two of the hungriest contenders in the game. Depending on the status of the weight class's top-ranked contender, Claudia Gadelha, it could also produce the next challenger for dominant divisional ruler Joanna Jedrzejczyk. And finally, it marks another major benchmark in the progress of women's MMA—a fantastic facet of the sport that just years ago, was hidden away on specialty channels and in the cages of smaller promotions. So, while it is a relatively modest fight in the sprawling shadow of UFC 194, it is absolutely not one to miss.