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Cyborg vs Holly UFC 219


Baigg

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To be fair though, Evinger was undersized, took the fight on short notice and as a smaller grappler with no real way to take Cyborg down and really basic striking, didn't have a style that posed any real threat to Cyborg. We say anything can happen in an MMA fight and all that but that fight was a pretty insurmountable task for Evinger. 

Holm has a style, and the striking pedigree, that on paper could give Cyborg problems. It wasn't that long ago that Cyborg took a beating from Jorina Baars in a kickboxing match. So it's not like she can't be bettered in a standup fight. It just takes a very high level striker to do it. And again, Holm has the striking chops and as a counterstriker could potentially use Cyborg's own aggression against her. 

I think this is a far more interesting matchup than a lot of people think. There's always the chance Cyborg just clatters her. She's that dangerous. But I don't know, I don't see this being a mugging. 

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Has Cyborg ever been observed to use any BJJ or grappling? I daresay that, as she's won most of her matches by destruction via fists, she probably hasn't had much call to use those weapons in her arsenal, so 1. we don't know how good she is in that department, and 2. she probably hasn't had much practice with them in real fight scenarios.

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It's going back years and I can't remember the fight that well but didn't Gina Carano have Cyborg mounted (lucky Cyborg, eh?) at one point before Cyborg annihilated her? Gina wasn't known for her grappling either. 

Obviously, that fight was 8 years ago so Cyborg will have improved. 

She's a BJJ brown belt under Andre Galvao (who has grappling accolades coming out his arse) so she can definitely grapple. But that's pure BJJ, we haven't really seen much of it in practice in MMA from her. And Holm isn't exactly easy to just take down. Not that I think Cyborg's looking to do that. If Cyborg goes for a takedown then it'll probably be because she's struggling in the striking. 

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This is just a few days away now. Pales in comparison to the last few years New Years PPVs like Nunes vs Rousey last year, Aldo vs McGregor the year before that and so on. But it's still a really good card, I think. 

While I'm here, Joe Rogan on Cyborg's badassness; 

Quote

Germaine De Randamie fought a man. That's how crazy scary Cyborg is. Germaine fought a man, and KO'd him! There's video of it. You can watch it. And she's like 'I'll fight a man but I'm not fighting Cyborg!' She said 'fuck this, man!'

Ha. 

On a serious note, I think a lot of people are sleeping on Holm's chances here. I'm still favouring Cyborg but I don't think Holm's the sacrificial lamb a lot of people are making her out to be at all. I've seen Matt Serra is picking Holm to win but most fighters and media I'm seeing has Cyborg just beasting her. 

Also interested to see how Khabib looks after yet another long layoff. Chances are he dominates, I just think he's all wrong for Barboza. But all these year layoffs on the shelf can't be good. 

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the interesting thing about it is that for Barboza to utilize his best weapon (the leg kick), he basically offers Khabib an invitation to take him down. That said, i don't think Barboza should not use the leg kicks because landing just two or three can alter the course of a fight. I just think he needs to be selective and maybe fire the low kicks in at the end of a combination with his hands. If Khabib does take him down, it'll resemble the Michael Johnson fight, utter domination.

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That's the thing for me. The leg kicks, and just kicking in general, are by far Barboza's best weapon. But like you say, in theory using them will leave him more open to Khabib's takedowns. But what can you do? Chances are he's getting taken down anyway so he might as well throw caution to the wind and go for maximum damage whenever they're standing. 

The gamble is worth it for Barboza because if he can land enough meaningful kicks to Khabib's legs it could hamper Khabib's ability to really force the takedown. If that happens then it becomes very interesting because then Khabib would effectively be forced into a standup fight and I don't see Khabib coping well with Barboza at all in that kind of fight.

I think Khabib wins though. Just don't see there being long enough spells on the feet for Barboza to get his shit going. 

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Yeah. Barboza is a good fight, and anything can happen on the feet, but it's hard to bet against a fighter that has yet to lose and, by all accounts, had their best weight cut of their career.

I also agree with wand about Holm. It's a far more interesting fight than Holm's recent record suggests. Simply, it's the two best women strikers in MMA going to battle.

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The 'undisclosed injury' is probably code for 'can't make the weight because Christmas food'. 

Seriously, I'm gutted he's off the card but he was never making weight at this time of year, was he? He's probably already eaten his own body weight in pigs in blankets alone. 

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he's not, i love it. It's not the usual case of an unranked guy stepping up to take a slot he probably doesn't deserve but it jumping at the chance of a lifetime. This is a surging contender who can afford to sit back and wait for a fight with a full camp, he's just going for it.

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