Cris “Cyborg” Justino will defend her women’s featherweight title for the first time when she takes on Holly Holm on Saturday night from Las Vegas. Cyborg has won eight bouts in a row by TKO, taking down Tonya Evinger in July. Holm, most noted for stopping Ronda Rousey, picked up a TKO win over Bethe Corriea her last time out. Let’s take a look at the best way to approach UFC 219 and it’s MMA betting opportunity so that you’re all ready to make money in prime time.
If you look at the numbers, you see why Cyborg is the heavy favorite. She has the 18-1 record (against Holm’s 11-3 tally). She lands 2.5 strikes per minute for every 1 that Holm lands, and her accuracy is 52%, while Holm’s is just 35%. Her takedown accuracy is more than three times better than Holm’s (57.1% to 18.2%). So in a battle of strikers, Cyborg looks like she should push to a win. She needs to keep advancing the action and not let Holm dance around the octagon. If she can keep the fight close, she can use her striking advantage to land the sort of blows that will lead to a TKO in one of the early rounds.
If you like Cyborg to win this fight, you see her doing what Rousey did not at UFC 215 — keeping Holm close and refusing to give Holm any sort of opening that would allow one of those devastating head kicks. That’s what slowed Rousey and opened the door for all of those strikes. You can bet that Cyborg is very familiar with the film on Holm and will advance the action to keep the distance close enough to neutralize Holm’s slight edge with reach.
Why should you put your money on Holly Holm?
Holm came in as a huge underdog at UFC 193 back in 2015, when she was slated to take on Ronda Rousey. However, “The Preacher’s Daughter” used her quickness and her feet to take Rousey down in the second round with a head kick that is still making its way around the Twitterverse, followed by a series of punches.
Holm has an advantage against Cyborg that few other fighters in the division have. She is the same height as Cyborg (68 inches) and her reach is actually an inch longer. When Holm faced Rousey, she faced a fighter who is solid at the takedown — and was able to neutralize that. Cyborg is another fighter who likes to use strength to get opponents to the ground, but she will struggle to do that against Holm. Holm also won’t sit there and try to trade punches — she will lose in a flurry of blows, because Cyborg punches harder and faster. However, Holm has the ability to stick and move, and I expect to see her moving around and looking for spots to land her kicks to the head and the body, and the occasional punch to the head.
Expert UFC 219 Pick and Final Prediction
This will not be as easy a win for Cyborg as her recent flurry of TKO’s. Holm is a mentally tough opponent who has picked up steam since taking down Rousey. With that said, Cyborg has the strength and quickness to stay with Holm and keep her from getting the space to mount the kick that stopped Rousey. I predict that Cyborg will successfully defend her women’s featherweight title and send Holm to a loss by TKO, as she just lands too many punches for Holm to withstand.
