Cris Cyborg is still the baddest woman on the planet.
Following a five round battle against Holly Holm at UFC 219, Cyborg earned a unanimous decision victory to retain her women’s featherweight title while going 25-minutes for the first time in her legendary career.
Cyborg knew that Holm was going to present a challenge as arguably the toughest opponent she’s faced in her career but she still managed to showcase her skills en route to another victory as she’s remained unbeaten for nearly 13 years.
Cyborg showed great patience while still stalking Holm around the Octagon and she blasted the former UFC champion with several right hands that definitely rattled her jaw.
Holm refused to back down and even showed her strength in the clinch as she managed to get underhooks a couple of times in the round, but she wasn’t able to do much in those exchanges before escaping back to the center of the Octagon.
It was obvious whenever the fighters exchanged strikes that Cyborg was landing with far more power as she seemingly walked through Holm’s best punches.
Despite giving up the harder shots to Cyborg, Holm still landed with consistency and accuracy, which carried into the second round as well when she popped the featherweight champion, which caused some blood to begin leaking from her nose.
Holm continued to push Cyborg against the cage where she was dominant in the clinch, although not doing much damage while still wearing down her opponent’s conditioning by making her work to stay standing.
Still, Cyborg’s power shots were doing far more damage and as Holm went to the corner her left eye was nearly shut from swelling as her corner rushed to try and help her during the one minute break.
Holm’s constant movement presented a challenge for Cyborg, who is usually able to cut off the cage and just swarm her opponents with devastating forward pressure. It didn’t stop Cyborg from putting constant pressure on Holm and whenever she got close enough, she would unload with that sledgehammer like right hand while also throwing good knees to the body as well.
Cyborg really started to take over in the latter part of the round, constantly throwing combinations and landing a huge barrage of punches just before the horn.
For the first time in more than four years, Cyborg fought into the fourth round as Holm refused to back down from the challenge the fearsome champion was giving her. Cyborg consistently worked Holm towards her powerful right high kick but she couldn’t quite find a home for it.
It was still apparent that Cyborg was in control as she continued to batter the left side of Holm’s face, which was swelling more and more with each punch landed.
Cyborg lands a flurry at the end of the round and catches Holm!!@CrisCyborg #UFC219 pic.twitter.com/AtWkW0tTWu
— UFC (@ufc) December 31, 2017
While Holm’s face was a mess, she still managed to drag Cyborg into the fifth and final round making the UFC 219 main event the longest fight of her entire career. It was only a moral victory, however, as Cyborg was still landing the harder, cleaner shots throughout every round.
A smile crept across Cyborg’s face with just over a minute left to go in the fight as she knew she was in control and was nearing the end of her first title defense. Holm survived to the final horn but the fight still went to Cyborg with the judges scoring the main event in her favor 49-46, 48-47, and 48-47.
Afterwards, Cyborg was asked about what comes next and she wasted no time asking for her next fight in Feb. against a former Invicta champion from the featherweight division.
“I’d like to fight somebody at 145, maybe Megan Anderson and I’d like to fight in Australia,” Cyborg said.
Anderson is signed to the UFC and was supposed to face Cyborg in July before she was forced out of the fight due to personal reasons. She wasted no time responding on Twitter and Anderson seems more than ready to accept the challenge.
Great fight ladies! Congrats Cris on retaining your belt! ???????? @ufc I think there's only 1 fight to make now against a legit featherweight. #UFC219
— Megan Anderson (@MeganA_mma) December 31, 2017
As for Holm, she drops to 0-2 in her brief career as a featherweight after falling to Germaine de Randamie earlier this year before dropping the decision to Cyborg on Saturday night. While Holm has said she’s open to more challenges at 145 pounds, it’s more likely she will return to bantamweight now were she remains a top challenger for champion Amanda Nunes.
