Cris Cyborg makes one of the tiniest turnarounds in her career when she places her UFC featherweight championship at stake vs Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 222 on March 3. Cyborg will go into this main event among the greatest favorites the UFC has seen in years.
However, once you get past the lopsided principal event, the rest of the main card is piled with tough-to-call, aggressive bouts. At the time of this writing, none of the four fights on the most important card beyond the title bout has a favorite larger than -190.
Cris Cyborg vs Yana Kunitskaya
We observe Cyborg (-1600) since she’s made a career from ruining her opponents. Cyborg has ever been one of the most aggressive fighters in the industry however, the featherweight champion has learned to exploit that and become much more patient. The real meat to her game is the jab, as Cyborg will relentlessly throw the jab out until an opponent feels the necessity to fire back — then she’ll counter with rapid, fight-ending intentions.
Cyborg is a huge fighter that possesses huge power for demanding clinch battles, though she is technically well served in this area as well. Her natural balance and core power make takedown attempts typically unsuccessful.
Yana Kunitskaya (+800) is an unknown for many but she is far from a novice. The challenger has spent her entire life practicing martial arts and has a well-versed striking repertoire due 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 have been noticeable improvements. If Kunitskaya can get top control on the floor, she moves well and has good ground and pound.
Read more: todaysportsnews.org
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