Cris Cyborg Lopsided Favorite for the Ages Against Jan Finney in Title Defense

Filed under: Fighting, Strikeforce, NewsWhen Cris “Cyborg” Santos walks into the cage to defend her middleweight title belt against Jan Finney during Saturday’s Strikeforce/M-1: Fedor vs. Werdum event, she will do so as one of the biggest favorites in …

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When Cris “Cyborg” Santos walks into the cage to defend her middleweight title belt against Jan Finney during Saturday’s Strikeforce/M-1: Fedor vs. Werdum event, she will do so as one of the biggest favorites in recent MMA history.

According to one online betting site, Cyborg was as much as a -2500 favorite, which means you’d have to lay down a whopping $2500 for the chance to win just $100. To put that into perspective, even the almighty Fedor Emelianenko is only a -600 favorite over Fabricio Werdum, a big number, but nowhere close to Cyborg’s.

The fact that a title match has such long odds is a rarity in MMA. What’s the reason behind the numbers? Three main things. First, the 9-1 Cyborg has built up a reputation as a wrecking machine, with TKO stoppages in seven of her last eight matches. Second, Finney has a fairly pedestrian 8-7 record, a mark you rarely see in a bout with gold on the line. Third, Finney’s strength is striking, yet most everyone believes Cyborg is the better and more powerful striker of the two. All of that means this is a money line for the history books.

MMA FightPicker Update: ‘Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum’ Pools Now Open

("Down in the Tremé / just me and my baby / we’re all throwin’ armbars / AND PUNCHIN’ AND HAVIN’ FUN!" Props: WatchKalibRun)
Just a quick update for all you MMA FightPicker players: Head over to fightpicker.cagepotato.com right now t…

Fedor Emelianenko saxaphone
("Down in the Tremé / just me and my baby / we’re all throwin’ armbars / AND PUNCHIN’ AND HAVIN’ FUN!" Props: WatchKalibRun)

Just a quick update for all you MMA FightPicker players: Head over to fightpicker.cagepotato.com right now to make your predictions for the main card matches at this Saturday’s Strikeforce show. We’ll assume that you don’t really care about the preliminary card, so we’ll keep this week’s batch of questions short and sweet. Do any of you have the balls to pick an upset in Emelianenko vs. Werdum or Cyborg vs. Finney? How do you see the Scott Smith/Cung Le rematch playing out? Review the questions below, then head over to MMA FightPicker when you think you have it all figured out…

– Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum @ ‘Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum’: Who will win?
– Will Emelianenko vs. Werdum end in a submission?
– Cris Cyborg vs. Jan Finney: Who will win?
– Will Cyborg vs. Finney end in a first round KO/TKO?
– Which fight will be shorter: Emelianenko vs. Werdum or Cyborg vs. Finney?
– Scott Smith vs. Cung Le: Who will win?
– Who will score the first knockdown: Smith or Le?
– Will Smith vs. Le end in a KO/TKO?
– Josh Thomson vs. Pat Healy: Who will win?
– Will Thomson vs. Healy make it to round 3?

* Note: We originally included the scheduled undercard fight between Ron Keslar and Magomed Shikshabekov in this week’s FightPicker pools, but Shikshabekov is off the card due to visa troubles, so we added another question related to Thomson/Healy. Please edit your pools if necessary.