Dana White got excited talking about rising UFC star Erin Blanchfield. Meet the fighter who could be the next Ronda Rousey for American MMA.

• Dana White recently waxed lyrical over Erin Blanchfield to Insider.
• The UFC boss said there were numerous reasons why she impressed him in her win over Jessica Andrade.

LAS VEGAS — Dana White got really animated talking about how good American MMA fighter Erin Blanchfield has become, her accomplishments to date, and her sky-high potential.

Blanchfield scored what is arguably the most significant win of the combat sports year so far when she finished the former UFC champion Jessica Andrade with ease on February 18.

Andrade is one of the UFC's most respected fighters and has competed against a who's who of tough women.

Yet Blanchfield, who is 23 years old and only joined the UFC in 2021, submitted Andrade with a second-round rear-naked choke, earned a $50,000 performance-related bonus, and is on a lightning-quick trajectory to the top that is reminiscent of only a handful of athletes like Israel Adesanya and Conor McGregor.

"I was blown away," UFC boss White told Insider at the Apex in Las Vegas. "She looked incredible."

Blanchfield strutted into the UFC cage 'like a gangster,' according to White

There were numerous reasons Blanchfield impressed White, he said.

These reasons combined things like performance, mindset, and the fact that she defeated Andrade on late notice, as the Brazilian replaced Talia Santos, who withdrew as a member of her coaching team was unable to obtain a visa.

"Let me start with this," White told us. "Jessica Andrade taking that fight on short notice, she's an absolute stud — number one. And not to take anything from Erin, she came out and did exactly what she needed to do.

"She went right after her, she wasn't afraid of her, and she wasn't afraid of her power. She stood in the pocket and mixed it up with her.

"You couldn't ask for a bigger stud than Andrade to come out and do what she did, and you couldn't ask for a better badass performance than Erin."

Watch the moment Blanchfield beat Andrade right here:

Blanchfield put possible stresses and pressures involved with headlining a Fight Night in Las Vegas to the side, and rarely seemed perturbed by Andrade's stand-up game, according to White.

"You got to put yourself in Erin's mindset," White told Insider.

"We've seen it in the past with big-time fighters and not just people on the undercard, and Erin's coming into her first main event, right? And her opponent falls out. That's a total mind-fuck to begin with.

"Then, you tell her it's Jessica Andrade, right? So you think about how mentally tough and mentally stable somebody has to be, the week leading up to a fight, and that all happens to her.

"Then she walks into this place like a gangster, and goes right after Andrade. It's just … the storyline doesn't get better than that, and it shows you who Erin really is, and what she's made of, and what she's capable of."

It may not be long before Blanchfield is thrust into a UFC title shot

Victory not only advanced Blanchfield's pro MMA record to 11 wins (two knockouts, four submissions, and five decisions) against just one loss, it also elevated her seven places in the women's flyweight rankings.

Blanchfield is now the No. 3 fighter behind only Manon Fiorot, Talia Santos, and the UFC champion Valentina Shevchenko, who defends her belt Saturday against Alexa Grasso at the big, UFC 285 show inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Insider asked White if Blanchfield is now close to a title shot herself, despite only being in the UFC for little more than a year.

"If you go in and beat somebody like Andrade, lot of questions about people, and the way you answer those questions and who you fight and how you handle yourself … you call them tests," said White.

"Could she have scored any higher than she did? No. She showed the world where she's at, and yeah … she's probably really close" to a shot at Shevchenko's belt, he said.

White may have been animated because Blanchfield could be a new Ronda Rousey

Hall of Fame fighter Ronda Rousey has few equals and is heralded as one of the sport's trailblazers, helping to usher a generation of female stars into the UFC.

Since her back-to-back defeats, and her 2018 retirement, however, women's MMA has been dominated by Brazilian superstar Amanda Nunes, Russia queen Valentina Shevchenko, and China's wildly popular Weili Zhang.

But, in Blanchfield, American MMA may have a new force — one, perhaps, not seen since Rousey left the game.

Blanchfield, though, appears more well-rounded than Rousey, who struck fear in opponents because of her vaunted judo throws and armbar submissions.

The youngster, meanwhile, appears as confident in her striking as her grappling.

Rousey's prime years in the UFC even helped inspire a younger and impressionable Blanchfield, according to a recent interview she gave with the Morning Kombat show on CBS / Showtime.

"My Dad was always super into UFC, so I always watched it," Blanchfield said.

"I remember watching Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate for the first time and I was like, 'That's so cool, I know I can do that.'

"And then when Rousey got into the UFC, and I saw [Liz] Carmouche, I remember sitting there in my living room telling myself that I could do that too if I wanted to."