UFC 219: Cyborg vs. Holm (12/30/2017) - Las Vegas, NV (T-Mobile Arena)

[Elsalvajeloco]

Joe Rogan used the phrase "created in a lab" so you know he's in rare form tonight.

[John E. Dynamite]

That was Khabib against a supposed bad style matchup, against a guy who trains with a world-class GnP mauler in Frankie Edgar. Tony being a slow starter and living in the scramble isn't gonna help him much, but I can't even imagine what Conor would have for him.

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 minute ago, John E. Dynamite said:

That was Khabib against a bad style matchup, against a guy who trains with a world-class GnP mauler like Frankie Edgar. Tony being a slow starter and living in the scramble isn't gonna help him much, but I can't even imagine what Conor would have for him.

I could easily see Khabib-Conor turning into what people initially thought the Mendes fight would be except Khabib in top position is obviously a much scarier proposition. I think Conor could only time a left hand, but if Khabib is willing to charge in at Barboza who is a human buzzsaw, I don't think Khabib is afraid of a measured straight left hand.

[Jiji]

I don't think Conor comes back to MMA, at least lightweight, while Khabib is waiting for him. Maybe a GSP super fight or another Diaz fight but I don't see him getting in the octagon with Khabib. 

[Jiji]

Holly's chin and clinch game were great. But Cyborg trapped her with great footwork, timing and patience. She's now smart, more technical, and still scary strong.

Was that two 48-47 scorecards? Huh?

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Holly's chin and clinch game were great. But Cyborg trapped her with great footwork, timing and patience. She's now smart, more technical, and still scary strong.

Was that two 48-47 scorecards? Huh?

Cris Cyborg working a pristine jab is the most bizarre thing I can think of considering in Storm Samurai ten years ago it was all windmill hooks and marching forward.

[Jiji]

I do wish she would've used the right straight-left hook combination Parillo was asking for. The jab was nasty though. It rocked Holly at least twice and I could see it putting lesser fighters down.

Nunes wants to fight Cyborg, I'd be down with that. Would be a blast to watch and it wouldn't be unthinkable for Amanda to KO Cyborg.

[Elsalvajeloco]

I don't see a Cyborg fight turning out well for Megan Anderson. She's basically in the embryonic stages of her career. She would be fighting legitimately the best P4P female fighter w/o fighting anyone legitimately good beforehand.

Nunes would be interesting but I don't think she carries the same strength as Holly Holm. If Cyborg ragdolled Nunes to the ground, that's not gonna be pretty.

[Jiji]

True. Holly's got exceptional clinch strength and skill. She out-grappled Ronda ffs. 

[NikoBaltimore]

I wasn't a fan of either fighter, but Holm/Cyborg was a pretty good fight.  I liked Holm using the clinch to her advantage but it just wasn't enough.  I don't know if her left eye gave her more problems than she hoped but going against Cyborg that certainly didn't help.  She hung in there though but I agree with the post-fight crew in that she just didn't look confident out there.  It might be her style but learning to relax and focus on the task at hand could only help.  I haven't seen enough of Megan but I'd be fully on board with Nunes going against Cris.

And poor Barboza, he just looked defeated and in round 3 seemed to stare at John asking to stop the fight.  And he's a pretty good fighter too, too bad for him he was against a beast like Khabib.  Connor would be a fool to go against him, but I could see Tony being more than up the challenge.  I would think he'd fare better than Edson but it would be one helluva uphill battle.

[Elsalvajeloco]

16 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

I wasn't a fan of either fighter, but Holm/Cyborg was a pretty good fight.  I liked Holm using the clinch to her advantage but it just wasn't enough.  I don't know if her left eye gave her more problems than she hoped but going against Cyborg that certainly didn't help.  She hung in there though but I agree with the post-fight crew in that she just didn't look confident out there.  It might be her style but learning to relax and focus on the task at hand could only help.  I haven't seen enough of Megan but I'd be fully on board with Nunes going against Cris.

And poor Barboza, he just looked defeated and in round 3 seemed to stare at John asking to stop the fight.  And he's a pretty good fighter too, too bad for him he was against a beast like Khabib.  Connor would be a fool to go against him, but I could see Tony being more than up the challenge.  I would think he'd fare better than Edson but it would be one helluva uphill battle.

I think Holly being too jittery (especially if she's shaking like a leaf just entering the cage) takes a lot off her punches because she's moving so much. She landed a few hard punches here and there, but nothing to make Cyborg respect what she had. The one thing I was impressed with is how Cyborg saw ALL those high kicks coming and didn't let that become a factor. Holly didn't even come close with one. She took away Holly's biggest weapon in the arsenal and forced to be a boxer, which I don't think Holly wanted to be in this fight. Essentially that meant all the space Holly really needed to stay away was gone. So Cris never really had to cut the octagon off at any point.

[TheVileOne]

Not going to say Carlos Condit should retire.  He didn't look awful.  However, he didn't look like he really wanted to be in there.  Seemed like he wanted to be making his nitro brew coffee or whatever.

WME needs to throw some marketing muscle behind other fighters like Tony Ferguson and Max Holloway instead of fighters like Cynthia Calvillo.  I'm not saying they shouldn't hype young undefeated prospects, but where was the hype machine for Blessed and El Cucuy when they were having insane, unprecedented winning streaks on the way to becoming champs? 

[The Natural]

This be Conor McGregor after seeing Khalib Nurmagomedov.

[J.T.]

I legit LOLed at Marc Diakiese's tap out loss. Dude talked a lot of shit and pointed a lot if fingers at the weigh-in while Hooker was all business.

Save it for the octagon, homie.

And Holy Fuck, Cris Cyborg.  She's matured so much as a fighter going from the windmill hooks from her Strikeforce days to clean footwork and a jab that would make most boxers envious and she still has frightening power. 

Kudos to Holly for doing what no other woman has and going the distance with Cyborg without dying, but that has to be cold comfort when you've lost two title fights in a row.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Holly Holm's lost 3 title fights in a row, and indeed on points fairly decisively to Shevchenko. But crucially she has not lost to Nunes. And she's still No. 2 ranked in the Bantamweight division - with Nunes looking to Featherweight, and Shevchenko to Flyweight. She's still liked, respected, American, and a name people know. A decent win or two in 2018 and she probably gets one more shot no problem.

[J.T.]

10 minutes ago, България завинаги said:

Holly Holm's lost 3 title fights in a row, and indeed on points fairly decisively to Shevchenko. But crucially she has not lost to Nunes. And she's still No. 2 ranked in the Bantamweight division - with Nunes looking to Featherweight, and Shevchenko to Flyweight. She's still liked, respected, American, and a name people know. A decent win or two in 2018 and she probably gets one more shot no problem.

Fuck.  Yeah, that's three title losses in a row.  My math has abandoned me this morning.  I will go get another cup of coffee.

[OSJ]

I haven't checked the Albuquerque news yet today, but when she comes home, win, lose, or draw Holly probably gets a parade. She's a pretty big deal in these parts.

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 hours ago, OSJ said:

I haven't checked the Albuquerque news yet today, but when she comes home, win, lose, or draw Holly probably gets a parade. She's a pretty big deal in these parts.

I hate to draw attention to this but that guy who is the official Jackson-Wink photographer who made the comments regarding Cyborg kinda fucked the whole sportsmanship thing (granted the PED use talk was somewhat a part of the early stages of Cyborg-Holm) after the fight. Why the hell would you drag Holly Holm into this? You're some nobody hanger on photographer who if anything is benefiting off of a team and fighters that doesn't really get anything from you. I'm glad people forced this fucker to delete his Twitter and social media accounts because he was clearly trying to start shit. The fact that Jackson/Wink hasn't fired this dude makes me cast a side-eye towards them. 

[Jiji]

Read about that the other day. Apparently their twitter account also liked a post calling Aljo the n-word. And do they really get into the whole PED/"dude" thing when Holly had those unflattering photos at the Ronda fight weigh-ins?

[OSJ]

4 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

I hate to draw attention to this but that guy who is the official Jackson-Wink photographer who made the comments regarding Cyborg kinda fucked the whole sportsmanship thing (granted the PED use talk was somewhat a part of the early stages of Cyborg-Holm) after the fight. Why the hell would you drag Holly Holm into this? You're some nobody hanger on photographer who if anything is benefiting off of a team and fighters that doesn't really get anything from you. I'm glad people forced this fucker to delete his Twitter and social media accounts because he was clearly trying to start shit. The fact that Jackson/Wink hasn't fired this dude makes me cast a side-eye towards them. 

Jackson-Wink = Assholes, Inc. 

Just because I live here doesn't mean I have to like them (or a number of their students who work as "greeters" (read: bouncers) at various ABQ watering holes). For some reason I remain unamused by twenty-somethings that weigh 130-150 lbs. telling me what badasses they are like they want to start something... There was one little punk that started working as a doorman at one of my favorite dart hangouts that just about got his head handed to him. Kept giving me shit about paying cover (the house rule was if you're coming to play darts or pool, no cover charge. Which sort of makes sense for a place with a dozen pool tables and 18 dart boards.) Showed him my darts explained the house rule in case they'd overlooked this in orientation and he kept up with this litany of "I was trained by Greg Jackson, I'm no one to fuck with!"  Number one, at the time I was 58 years old and not really looking to "fuck with" anybody, and number two, I've got this guy by half a foot and a hundred pounds and the only thing likely to happen is for me to pull his fucking arms out of the socket and beat him over the head with them.  I'm no badass, but I do have a little bit of training and in younger days worked as a bouncer at some bucket of blood dives on old skid row in Seattle that the cops wouldn't go into, so yeah, I have been in  a scrap or two. One thing that was ingrained in me in early martial arts training was to always be respectful of anyone. Jackson-Wink seem to forget this basic and just go straight to teaching MMA. (Which by the way doesn't work nearly as well in a street-fight  as some of their obstreperous young products imagine). Just sayin'.