Jump to content

Cyborg vs Holly UFC 219


Baigg

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 97
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Paid Members

Aye. Looks like absolute bollocks that post by jim.

Pretty mental it's taken Khabib this long to properly sort out his diet, considering how brutal the weigh cut is for him. Be interesting to see if that helps him performance, because a couple have been so so due to a bad cut.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

We'll see. He's still got 3 days to find the tiramisu they've hidden yet. 

Whats going on now with this Rivera vs Moraes fight? I saw Moraes was on about stepping in and they were both up for it but then yesterday they were both saying the other was trying to back out or some shite. Someone's lying. Either way it's looking like it might not happen if their twitters were anything to go by. It's too late in the day now to be pissing about. 

Edit - yep just checked and Rivera is off the card completely now which is a shame. 

Here's how the final card shakes out...

PPV MAIN CARD

Cris Cyborg vs Holly Holm - Featherweight Title

Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Edson Barboza 

Cynthia Calvillo vs Carla Esparza 

Carlos Condit vs Neil Magny 

Dan Hooker vs Marc Diakiese 

 

FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS

Khalil Rountree vs Michal Oleksiejczuk 

Myles Jury vs Rick Glenn 

Louis Smolka vs Matheus Nicolau 

Omari Akhmedov vs Marvin Vettori

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS

Tim Elliott vs Mark De La Rosa

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Losing Rivera is a rough hit to the card. It's still good but it's definitely a step down from the year end cards of recent years. Having Rivera vs. Lineker as third from the top was something I was using to defend the card quality. Rivera vs. Moraes would have been equally good.

Now, Condit vs. Magny is my pick for 3rd most anticipated on the card. I've been hesitant to be too hyped for the return of Condit because I'm just a bit unsure about him these days. He had a foot out the door when the result of the Lawler fight didn't go his way, then he ultimately returned to get squashed by Maia in 2 minutes. Have the wars caught him with him? Is he mentally checked out? Or has he rejuvenated himself these past few months to come back as the Natural Born Killer of old?

Fuck it, I'm gonna go binge Condit fights on Fight Pass. Man is a warrior.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

yeh, unsure what to think about Condit's return. I haven't seen or heard any interviews with him to grasp where his mindset is at but i hope he's still got the fire for it because Magny is the kind of guy who will quickly make you second guess coming back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

I guess the hope is that Condit's time away has refreshed him and given him time to miss fighting and get his love back for it. Condit's had a long old career. And he started young. Looking at his record he was 18 when he had his first pro fight. He's had 40 fights now and when you look at the quality of the guys he's fought there might be nobody with a tougher run of fights than him. He's fought everyone - GSP, Nick Diaz, Robbie Lawler, Tyron Woodley, Demian Maia, Johny Hendricks, Rory MacDonald, Thiago Alves, Martin Kampmann, Dan Hardy, Jake Ellenberger, Jake Shields, Frank Trigg. It's ridiculous. And he fought them all at or close to their best. Then you look at the wars he's been in. It's no wonder he needed a break. 

At 33 years old he could have a few good years left in him yet if he's motivated again. I still think he's good enough to give the top boys at 170 a run for their money. Depends where his head is at, I suppose. But I wouldn't read too much into his loss to Maia. That might be misleading. Maia can buzzsaw through a lot of guys if things go right early on and he gets you down when he's fresh. I said it going in but I just felt like that was a bad style match for Condit because his takedown defence is his weakest area. How quick Maia beat him might have given a bit of a distorted impression of Condit being a bit shot or something but I think there's a lot more left in him than he got to show that night. The time out hopefully did him good and allowed him to recharge and rejuvenate himself but we'll see. 

He sounds up for it here;

But not so much here; 

Fuck knows? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Condit recent (ish) record is misleading. On paper, he's lost 5 out of his last 7 fights since 2012. However, he's been a much better fighter than that. The fight between he and Lawler could have been scored either way; it was a case of what you liked. I scored it for Lawler - but the majority had it for Condit. He lost cleanly to GSP, but gave him some issues along the way, even dropping him; the first man to do so since Serra (I think).

His fight with Woodley ended early due to injury, he would have probably lost, but it was still inconclusive. He lost cleanly to Hendricks, but gave a decent account of himself in the last round. Today's version of Hendricks is a joke compared to the 2013 version that Condit face. The very next fight, Hendricks took GSP to the wire. It was only really the Maia fight where there was little positive to say about Condit's performance, and as said above, it wasn't the best style match-up for him. Alves and Kampmann were both solid stoppage wins. 

I hope Condit prevails on Saturday. I have often rooted against him; being a fan of GSP, Lawler, Hardy and Diaz. However, I have enjoyed watching him fight over the years. Barring the Lawler fight, perhaps my favourite moment of his was when he stopped a young Rory MacDonald in 2010. He stopped MacDonald with just 7 seconds left in the last round, after losing the first two rounds. At best, he would have scrambled a draw had he not scored the stoppage. A win over Rory may not seem that impressive now, but at the time it was a bit of a shocker. It really felt like he was GSP 2:0, just less developed, more imposing, and less likeable. It was quite the moment when the referee stepped in. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

I remember having the Hendricks fight closer than that. It was one of those fights where I felt the guy on the bottom (Condit) was doing more, and the better, work but that Hendricks being on top would probably be stealing him the rounds. 

Really, if you look back at Condit's losses his lack of takedown defence has really fucked him over. If you could've magically stuck Cro Cop 2003's sprawl on Condit I'll go as far as to say he'd have probably beat GSP. Almost all his big losses came down to guys nicking rounds with takedowns and top control. It's really only Robbie Lawler who beat him in a standup fight, and even that's debatable. 

Great fighter. But this coffee thing he's doing now, I don't know. It feels like when Rich Franklin started up that juice company. Watching that second video with Esther Lin there, I get the feeling that if this coffee thing takes off for him he's gone. He as good as said there that the payday for fighting this weekend could just kickstart the coffee thing. Which, I hope it works out for him but it's a bit worrying if he's fighting but his focus is on these poncey coffees and stuff. 

His interviews this week have raised more questions than answers for me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Yeah GSP beats most mortals. I just always thought that if GSP couldn't take Condit down, sooner or later given Condit's aggression, durability and variety of strikes, GSP would start to struggle. We'll never know obviously because it's MMA and GSP could take him down. At will. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

This is tonight then. Between the time of year, this card not being as stacked as most UFC year end PPVs have been and the fact it's following two of the best PPVs we've ever seen back-to-back in 217 and 218...the buzz for this has been lacking. 

It's a pretty strong card though, I think. No real blockbuster fights on there but what's there should be good. 

I'm usually wrong but here's my predictions;

ecVFi.jpg

Cyborg vs Holm is an interesting one. I'm well up for this. Easily the toughest test so far in the UFC for Cyborg. Looking back over Cyborg's record I'd say it's the hardest fight of her entire MMA career full stop actually. It's easy to think Cyborg will just bulldoze her because that's all we've seen her do to her opponents so far. We've been conditioned to expect that. She's 3-0 in the UFC, all TKOs. But Tonya Evinger, Lina Lansberg and Leslie Smith were nowhere near as skilled or well equipped to tackle Cyborg like I think Holm is. Holm's put years and years in combat sports. And one thing we've never really seen Cyborg deal with is a really good technical counterstriker. Usually Cyborg just rushes her opponents and they panic and have no answer and just get overwhelmed. Holm fights best when her opponents come at her. Granted she's never had Cyborg come at her, and that's the thing here. There's a big difference in Cyborg coming after you and any other woman in the division. Obviously, counterstriking and catching a Ronda Rousey coming in is going to be way more simple and straight forward than a beast like Cyborg. That's what makes this so interesting. They both have the tools to make the others' usual game tricky. 

I the end I'm going Cyborg by KO/TKO though. It's the first time I'm really unsure about a Cyborg fight though, and that's a testament to Holm. But I don't know. Holm's got skills but she has these lapses in fights where she just seems too laid back and switches off. She's gone 1-3 since bashing Ronda up. And all 3 of those losses I felt she could've won if she'd stepped it up just a bit. It's going to take a near perfect performance from her tonight. One mistake could be the end. I can see her counterstriking frustrating Cyborg at times but ultimately I think Cyborg will cause too much damage. 

 

EsPdx.jpg

Khabib vs Barboza is a battle of total opposites. Like we covered earlier in the thread, I see Khabib's grappling just being too much for Barboza to overcome. I can see Barboza being hesitant to really let his kicks go, understandably given the threat that Khabib's takedown proposes. I hope Barboza makes more of a fight of it than I'm expecting but I think it's a bad matchup for him. If he can whip a few of those leg kicks in before Khabib can get his grappling going things could get interesting and Khabib might well struggle getting the takedown if his base is damaged. But logically I have to think Khabib's got this. Even after the layoff. 

Khabib by decision.

 

KG8iy.jpg

Hooker vs Diakiese is a fight we've all probably slept on. Hooker is a solid scrapper. Hasn't got the best of records and he's been on a win one/lose one run for a while now. But he's good to watch. Tough guy and aggressive as fuck. Knocked out Ross Pearson with a vicious knee in his last fight in June. Diakiese is coming off his first loss in July. It was a split decision and it was the kind of loss that he'll probably only learn and get better from. He's 12-1 now and I think he's one of the more exciting fighters to come out of the UK in some time. Don't know what was up with Diakiese at he weigh in though. He was getting in Hooker's face and kicking off about something. Is there beef there? Didn't follow anything of these two in the build up. 

Diakiese by KO/TKO but it's a bit of a shot in the dark. 

 

LJ1X7.jpg

Calvillo vs Esparza is one of those fights where you just know what the UFC want and what the matchmakers were thinking. Dana seems really high on Calvillo. She came out of nowhere this year and went 3-0 in the UFC within 4 months. She stepped in on short notice (you know the UFC brass love that) at UFC 210 and beat Pearl Gonzalez. She beat Joanne Calderwood in Scotland. She's unbeaten at 6-0 and she's got a bit of an attitude to her. Exactly the kind of fighter the division needs. Esparza on the other hand, dull as shit. Looked OK beating Rose Namajunas to become the champ in 2014 but has gone 2-2 since. Mostly boring, nothing happening decisions and there was the time she got absolutely savaged by Joanna Jedrzejczyk. She's never going to be a fighter people give a flying fuck about. She's just making up the numbers. Make no mistake, the UFC want a Calvillo win here. And so do I. Esparza winning does nothing good and it just eliminates an exciting fresh contender in a division that needs them. I think Calvillo wins anyway. Esparza could just edge another terrible decision by holding her against the fence and humping her leg but from what I've seen Calvillo is a strong grappler and although not great on the feet, better than Esparza. 

Calvillo by decision. 

 

TViZo.jpg

Condit vs Magny opens the PPV. Another intriguing one. Mostly because I'm really not sure what's up with Condit. From watching bits and pieces this week I really get the feeling his heart isn't in this anymore. Seems like he's just doing it to fund this coffee thing he's into and seeing it as the easiest way he knows to get paid. But Condit's the kind of guy who, even if he's doing it for the wrong reasons, I just can't see him half arsing it. I think he still probably loves fighting. It's probably all the shit that comes with it he's sick of - the weight cut, pre-fight anxiety, the media stuff etc. I don't know what to make of him. It's the biggest question mark on the card for me. Nothing against Magny but I'd love to see him come in and just wipe Magny out. Not sure what happens though. 

Going Magny by decision. I think Condit's the better fighter and I really hope he proves me wrong but between the time away and how he's sounded a bit disinterested this week, I'm fancying Magny to outwork him. 

 

So full predictions...

Cris Cyborg by KO/TKO 

Khabib Nurmagomedov by Decision

Marc Diakiese by KO/TKO 

Cynthia Calvillo by Decision

Neil Magny by Decision

Khalil Rountree by KO/TKO 

Myles Jury by Submission

Omari Akhmedov by Decision

Louis Smolka by Submission

Tim Elliott by Submission

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Predictions for later:

I'll take Cyborg to win the main event. Like you mentioned Wand, it's going to have to be a perfect fight from Holly and I just think the challenge of her being able to pick apart Cyborg for 25 minutes without getting clipped is something she won't be able to manage. That's not a knock on Holly at all, I'd say the exact same about anyone fighting Cyborg with the run she's currently on. I think the combination of Cyborg's pressure approach, along with the size and strength advantage is going to see her take this one. 

Khabib by late submission in the co-main. Barboza isn't going to be letting his kicks fly in fear of being taken down, taking away his biggest weapon in the process. The first ten seconds of the fight are the most important for Edson, because unless he comes and cracks Khabib early then he's just going to spending the rest of the fight on his back. Even though Michael Johnson showed last time out that Khabib is hittable, those were all with punches, and if Khabib does take a few shots you just know he's taking it to the deck.

Diakese and Hooker is going to be a good scrap. They match up together stylistically quite nicely. I'll say that Hooker takes the unanimous decision, but that just comes off of seeing Diakese put in a pretty sub-par performance in his last fight. I think the UFC are fairly big on Diakese though, which is making me lean towards him a little. A spot on the main card of a PPV, he's brash enough as demonstrated with his weigh-in antics and he was one of the 6/7 lightweights you could play as on the UFC beta. I think Calvillo will tap out Esparza. She's got a wicked ground game and I can't see Carla being able to stop the takedown for three rounds. Condit/Magny is tricky, it's a fight I'd look at on paper and think Condit should win, but with his general attitude surrounding the fight, the fact he's coming off of two batterings, I can see Magny being able to outstrike him for a decision win.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Re: Calvillo vs Esparza, on paper Esparza's the better wrestler so she might be able to stop the takedown. She'll probably be the one going for takedowns. But I think/hope Calvillo's good enough to either catch her in a submission in the scrambles or damage her shooting in. Calvillo looked the bigger of the two at the weigh in, she seems hungrier and she's definitely more aggressive. I just think Esparza's two one note to cut it against the newer wave of fighters in the division. 

Saying that, we still don't know that much about Calvillo. Esparza's a one trick pony but she's good enough at that one trick to shut some fighters down. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Khabib is easily the most scary MMA Lightweight of all time. Penn in his prime was explosive, but wasn't the physical force that Khabib is today. Neither was Sherk, Bendo, Edgar and other grapplers who have ruled the 155lbs division. Khabib is a different breed. I often feel sorry for the fuckers that he roughs up. 

Khabib's biggest problem is his body failing him. Khabib's injury issues are well-documented. I was reminded of this post fight when Javier Mendez popped up inside the cage. I am not saying that Mendez ruins fighter's bodies with his training regiments or anything - just that Mendez's presence reminded me of Cain's issues. I really hope his body holds up going forward.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...