Cris Cyborg makes one of the tiniest turnarounds in her career when she places her UFC featherweight championship on the line vs Yana Kunitskaya in UFC 222 on March 3. Cyborg will enter this main event among the biggest favorites the UFC has seen in years.
However, once you get past the lopsided principal event, the remainder of the chief card is stacked with tough-to-call, aggressive bouts. In the time of this writing, none of the four conflicts on the most important card beyond the title bout has a popular bigger than -190.
Cris Cyborg vs Yana Kunitskaya
We observe Cyborg (-1600) because she’s made a profession out of destroying her opponents. Cyborg has always been among the most competitive fighters in the business but the featherweight champion has learned to harness that and become more individual. The actual meat to her game is the jab, as Cyborg will throw the jab out until an opponent feels the need to fire back — then she will counter with quick, fight-ending goals.
Cyborg is a huge fighter who possesses huge strength for demanding clinch battles, though she is technically well served in this region as well. Her natural equilibrium and core strength produce takedown attempts typically ineffective.
Yana Kunitskaya (+800) is an unknown for many but she’s far from a beginner. The challenger has spent her entire life practicing martial arts and contains a well-versed striking repertoire thanks for her extensive training in Muay Thai and taekwondo. Kunitskaya does her very best work when she can dictate the speed and distance of a struggle, working from the outside with her kicks.
In terms of grappling, Kunitskaya is solid although largely depends upon her sneaky strength. The technique still hasn’t caught up fully, though there were noticeable improvements. If Kunitskaya can acquire high control on the floor, she moves well and has good ground and pound.
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