Striking coach Mike Winkeljohn predicts another major upset victory for Holly Holm against Cris Cyborg, similar to the Ronda Rousey win more than two years ago.
Former multiple-time boxing champion Holly Holm burst into the MMA mainstream scene when she knocked out Ronda Rousey in 2015 to become the UFC women’s bantamweight champion. As she approaches her title fight against Cris Cyborg at UFC 219, her team expects another upset victory for “The Preacher’s Daughter.”
Holm’s striking coach Mike Winkeljohn recently spoke to Submission Radio about his thoughts on the upcoming fight and even gave his own prediction.
“You know what, behind the scenes when we fought Ronda we were pretty confident that we had the proper game plan to beat Ronda,” Winkeljohn said. “Everybody thought we were crazy, everyone thought Holly was crazy when she first fought Christy Martin back in the early days in boxing cause Christy Martin knocked everyone out, and Holly made that look easy, and she had what I call that “Christy Martin” moment where Christy tried to throw a punch at her, Holly slipped under and then Christy almost went through the ropes. Guess what? Ronda did the same thing, and it’s gonna happen in the Cris Cyborg fight, she’s gonna have that same moment.”
“Holly’s stopping Cris Cyborg probably later in the fight. You know, round four, round five she’s gonna finish the fight, shock the world again.”
The road to finalizing the Holm-Cyborg fight was a long and winding one, mainly due to the contract disagreements between both camps. Winkeljohn feels they are still on the compromising end of the deal, but expects the situation to dramatically change once Holm once again has the UFC belt around her waist.
“No, she deserves much more, but it is what it is,” Winkeljohn said. “Cyborg’s got the title, Holly doesn’t have a title, so we don’t have all the chips at the moment, and the fight is what’s most important. Beating Cris Cyborg puts Holly back and higher where she will be the, I guess, biggest name ever in women’s combat sports. So she’s gotta win the fight and got to do that first, and then maybe she’ll get paid even more in the next one.”
UFC 219 takes place on December 30th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It will be co-headlined by a lightweight fight between Edson Barboza and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Winkeljohn’s interview begins at the 5:24 mark of the video above.