UFC 222: Cyborg vs Kunitskaya Prediction and Info Thread

[tokeweed]

Date: Saturday, March 3rd
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass): 11:30 BCT / 3:30pm PST / 6:30pm EST
Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1): 1:00 BCT / 5pm PST / 8pm EST
Main Card (PPV): 3:00 BCT / 7pm PST / 10pm EST
Live Streams: http://www.fìrstrow.eu/




Main Card (PPV)

Cris Cyborg (19-1) vs. Yana Kunitskaya (10-3) (Women's Featherweight Championship)
Frankie Edgar (22-5-1) vs. Brian Ortega (13-0) (Featherweight)
Sean O’Malley (9-0) vs. Andre Soukhamthath (12-5) (Bantamweight)
Stefan Struve (28-9) vs. Andrei Arlovski (26-15) (Heavyweight)
Cat Zingano (9-2) vs. Ketlen Vieira (9-0) (Women's Bantamweight)

Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1)

Ashley Yoder (5-3) vs. Mackenzie Dern (5-0) (Women's Strawweight)
Beneil Dariush (14-3-1) vs. Alexander Hernandez (8-1) (Lightweight)
John Dodson (19-9) vs. Pedro Munhoz (15-2) (Bantamweight)
C. B. Dollaway (16-8) vs. Hector Lombard (34-8-1) (Middleweight)

Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)

Mike Pyle (27-13-1) vs. Zak Ottow (15-5) (Welterweight)
Bryan Caraway (21-7) vs. Cody Stamann (16-1) (Bantamweight)
Jordan Johnson (8-0) vs. Adam Milstead (8-1) (Light Heavyweight)

Other

- Bobby Green was expected to face Beneil Dariush at the event, but pulled out on February 14 due to injury. He was replaced by promotional newcomer Alexander Hernandez on February 23.

Thanks to the Puertorican for letting me use this content.

[Hydrogen]

Notes.

-The MMA gym CB Dolloway trained out of for years closed down in may 2017. Not certain if that will have a positive or negative effect on Dolloway's performance but it could make it harder for him to find sparring/training partners depending on how things went.

-Mackenzie Dern is being given a lot of credit and hype for being relatively untested in MMA. There's a chance her potential could be limited by training at MMA Lab which isn't the best MMA gym to learn technique. Many MMA Lab fighters are outclassed everywhere and forced to win fights with their heart and conditioning.

-Cody Stamann has a cool "Molon Labe" tattoo. For those who don't get the reference, its a historical nod to King Leonidas and the spartans. When the Persian king asked the spartans to "surrender their weapons" at the Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas reply was "Molon Labe" it translates to "(come) take them". Awhile ago I bet on Cody Stamann to win his fight, for no reason other than his Molon Labe tattoo and it worked. I hope he can win his fight again although its hard to say where Bryan Caraway is at with him not having fought in such a long time.

-Yana Kunitskaya trains out of JacksonWink if I remember right. They have been falling behind and losing a lot of fights recently.

-Brian Ortega tested positive for steroids awhile ago. That could be part of the reason why he "paces himself" and "doesn't begin fighting seriously until round 3" in many of his fights. Ortega could also be a slow starter who takes time to feel comfortable in the cage. The jury is out on what the reasoning behind Ortega having so many round 3 finishes in fights he was losing on the scorecards. It might be an interesting point to think about for those who like to break down MMA math.

-Nothing personal but I hope Frankie Edgar loses. :/ He keeps talking about Conor like he thinks he's going to easily take Conor down and lie on him for 5 rounds to win a decision. Its annoying.

[Kemarit]

On another note:

Amazon Picks Up Rights To UFC PPV Events Via Prime Video

Amazon is taking a further step into the sports rights business by picking up non-exclusive U.S. rights to UFC PPV events, starting with Saturday’s UFC 222. Specific deal terms, including the deal’s length and cost, are not known at this time. A formal announcement is coming this morning. Amazon Head of Sports Jim DeLorenzo led negotiations for Amazon; a team of Endeavor execs handled the deal for UFC, led by IMG Media Senior VP & Head of North America Hillary Mandel and UFC Exec VP & CFO Andrew Schleimer.

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Morning-Buzz/2018/02/28/Amazon.aspx


@Hydrogen, I agree with Frankie Edgar, I think he should retire after he loses to Brian Ortega this coming UFC 222.

What I only like about Kunitskaya is she is the underdog, anything can happen, no pressure from her. Although she is a Invicta bamtamweight champ herself it will be good to see how good she really is and this is like a one time opportunity to showcase her skills. So we might see some surprises here.

[tokeweed]

Here are a couple of videos.  The card is really not that good for a PPV event.  But Kunitskaya is kinda hot...  Subscribed and thinking of making a small bet on her. 

UFC 222 Countdown:  Full Episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgl5x7gnCLk

UFC 222:  Cyborg vs Kunitskaya - Inside the Octagon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKm_BNNP7tI

[eaLiTy]

-Nothing personal but I hope Frankie Edgar loses. :/ He keeps talking about Conor like he thinks he's going to easily take Conor down and lie on him for 5 rounds to win a decision. Its annoying.

This is the exact reason Conor McGregor is avoiding Frankie Edgar for a very long time because of his wrestling skills and accolades and he is a black belt in BJJ and no one has ever stopped Frankie Edgar in his career and that cannot be said about Conor as he was stopped three times till now in MMA and one time in boxing and he is the only fighter who never defended any of his belts in his entire career   .
I am going with Frankie Edgar to win the fight ,i do understand the high level ground skills of Ortega and he is a future champion but the Frankie i know could defend anything Ortega can bring to the table mainly because of the slow start of Ortega and it is hard to stop Frankie like the rest of the opponents he faced.

[Baofeng]

-Nothing personal but I hope Frankie Edgar loses. :/ He keeps talking about Conor like he thinks he's going to easily take Conor down and lie on him for 5 rounds to win a decision. Its annoying.

This is the exact reason Conor McGregor is avoiding Frankie Edgar for a very long time because of his wrestling skills and accolades and he is a black belt in BJJ and no one has ever stopped Frankie Edgar in his career and that cannot be said about Conor as he was stopped three times till now in MMA and one time in boxing and he is the only fighter who never defended any of his belts in his entire career   .
I am going with Frankie Edgar to win the fight ,i do understand the high level ground skills of Ortega and he is a future champion but the Frankie i know could defend anything Ortega can bring to the table mainly because of the slow start of Ortega and it is hard to stop Frankie like the rest of the opponents he faced.

I'm also leaning towards Frankie here. I admit that I'm a big fan so I might be biased here. And even if he losses this fight, he still has more years. He's not getting the accolades that he deserves and his fight is very exciting, but he seldom fight and Ortega is just a replacement because he's supposed to fight Holloway. He opted not to wait for Holloway but instead fights Ortega instead.

[tokeweed]

-Nothing personal but I hope Frankie Edgar loses. :/ He keeps talking about Conor like he thinks he's going to easily take Conor down and lie on him for 5 rounds to win a decision. Its annoying.

This is the exact reason Conor McGregor is avoiding Frankie Edgar for a very long time because of his wrestling skills and accolades and he is a black belt in BJJ and no one has ever stopped Frankie Edgar in his career and that cannot be said about Conor as he was stopped three times till now in MMA and one time in boxing and he is the only fighter who never defended any of his belts in his entire career   .
I am going with Frankie Edgar to win the fight ,i do understand the high level ground skills of Ortega and he is a future champion but the Frankie i know could defend anything Ortega can bring to the table mainly because of the slow start of Ortega and it is hard to stop Frankie like the rest of the opponents he faced.

I'm also leaning towards Frankie here. I admit that I'm a big fan so I might be biased here. And even if he losses this fight, he still has more years. He's not getting the accolades that he deserves and his fight is very exciting, but he seldom fight and Ortega is just a replacement because he's supposed to fight Holloway. He opted not to wait for Holloway but instead fights Ortega instead.

^  I don't think he 'still has more years'.  Edgar is getting old.  And his fighting style is def NOT exciting imo.  If anything, Ortega has 'more years' than Edgar and losing here wouldn't be all that bad for him.  It's actually good for his growth and experience.

Here are the weigh ins.

UFC 222:  Weigh Ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AByHNTsreo

I made a small bet on Kunitskaya at 10.89.  

Cris Cyborg (144.75) vs Yana Kunitskaya (144)
Frankie Edgar (146) vs Brian Ortega (145.5)
Sean O’Malley (136) vs Andre Soukhamthath (135.25)
Stefan Struve (266) vs Andrei Arlovski (247.5)
Cat Zingano (135.5) vs Ketlen Vieira (136)
Ashley Yoder (115.5) vs Mackenzie Dern (116)
Beneil Dariush (156) vs Alexander Hernandez (155)
John Dodson (134.5) vs Pedro Munhoz (135)
C.B. Dollaway (185.5) vs Hector Lombard (185.5)
Mike Pyle (170) vs Zak Ottow (171)
Bryan Caraway (135.5) vs Cody Stamann (135.75)
Jordan Johnson (206) vs Adam Milstead (205)

[krach]

No write up yet but here are my bets:

I think CB can get through round one when Lombard will be the most dangerous and get a win, maybe a late finish.
O malley over hyped.
I dont really trust Arlovski´s or Struve´s chin but I can see Struve getting knocked out,  again with one of those big looping punches after going backwards too much.
Cat has been away a while but at those odds it is a value bet on her vs Vieira should be closer to even.
Dern totaly over hyped and going to be under the big lights, Yoder could upset here or make it really close, crazy odds.
I think that Cyborg uses the same style as vs Holm and uses some clinical striking, Kunitskaya was training with Holm too, and will try to string this out into more rounds, you get great odds only for her to make it to the second.

C.B. Dollaway +105* vs Hector Lombard
Andre Soukhamthath -120* vs Sean O'Malley
Andrei Arlovski +160* vs Stefan Struve
Cat Zingano +170* vs Ketlen Vieira
Yoder (scorecards = no action) +534* vs Dern (scorecards = no action)
Yoder points handicap +3½ +165* vs Dern points handicap
Andre Soukhamthath -120* vs Sean O'Malley
Cat Zingano +170* vs Ketlen Vieira
Ashley Yoder +375* vs Mackenzie Dern
Kunitskaya / Cyborg starts round 3 +200* vs Fight won’t start round 3
Kunitskaya / Cyborg starts round 2 -120* vs Fight won’t start round 2
Arlovski wins inside distance +300* vs Not Arlovski inside distance 
Yana Kunitskaya/Cris Cyborg Over 1½ +130*

[bbc.reporter]

I reckon Brian Ortega has a better chance of winning than what the odds are making us believe. He is also the bigger guy, with the longer reach, which might give Frankie Edgar some difficulties if the fight goes standup/striking.

Needless to say, Brian also has a good ground game and something Frankie might not want to get into versus him.

[tokeweed]

Lol.  There goes my bet (again).

Here are the results.  I didn't watch the event.  I just looked at the results online and saw that my bet lost and laughed.  I was kinda half hoping I'd win it tbh.  Lololol. 

[SaShiRaJaVu]

It was a crazy fight card with five split decision victories which is a record in a single event,the judging are awful as every state has their own set of rules and regulations,they need to set things and make a single MMA rule world wide rather than different rules on judging the fight,the sport has grown a lot a still we are confused with different rules,the biggest upset was Alexander Hernandez knocking Beneil Dariush in his first UFC fight.

[btc_angela]

I didn't see the full fight, and I just watched replay of the main card. Yana Kunitskaya was not intimidated at all and she take the risk and try to be the aggressive but Cyborg is really strong. Although Yana was able to took her down, she was able to capitalized it and Cyborg has one of the best defense and Yana pay the price for it.

And what a win by Brian Ortega. He looks like 7 feet tall against Frankie. Lol. First person to KO Frankie I think and he did it in the first round. So I think that's it for Frankie Edgar. He should retire in my opinion.

[bbc.reporter]

@btc_angela. Yes, everyone missed Brian's height and reach advantage hehe. I am happy that he won. I would very much would like to watch him and Max Holloway for the championship than Frankie Edgar.

Frankie is old now and he had his time. But is time for the young fighters to take over.

[btc_angela]

@btc_angela. Yes, everyone missed Brian's height and reach advantage hehe. I am happy that he won. I would very much would like to watch him and Max Holloway for the championship than Frankie Edgar.

Frankie is old now and he had his time. But is time for the young fighters to take over.

Yeah, the height and reach was pretty obvious. Its like watching Jon Jones Vs Daniel Cormier at the lower weight class. And it really looks like the Brian in one weight class above Frankie during the fight. He must have been rehydrated well. Although Frankie tries to bring the fight to him, its was not enough as he was able to take Edgar's best punch. The old dragons need to retire now, no need to damage your body and worst your brain. Holloway vs Ortega will be a good match.

[tokeweed]

^  Dana White has already confirmed that Holloway vs Ortega will happen as soon as the former is out of injury and ready to train.

I think Holloway will have his hands full fighting Ortega. The guy is just huge.  He's like a LW fighting at FW...  Seriously.

[Hydrogen]

Haha. I guess Ortega was just too big to fail. Or Edgar might need to drop a weight class or two. Either way, I think Frankie was too slow and too predictable. Ortega blocked a lot of Frankie's punches with his gloves and shoulders. Almost like Ortega was able to anticipate and see what Frankie was doing before he did it. It may only have been a matter of time before Ortega hit him with a stiff counter.

Kunitskaya's arms and shoulders are so massive. In hindsight it makes sense for her to try to overpower Cyborg wrestling.

Hernandez upset was very surprising. Hernandez predicted he would win and seemed very confident leading up to the fight.

[nydiacaskey01]

@btc_angela. Yes, everyone missed Brian's height and reach advantage hehe. I am happy that he won. I would very much would like to watch him and Max Holloway for the championship than Frankie Edgar.

Frankie is old now and he had his time. But is time for the young fighters to take over.

Frankie Edgar had his time in the octagon but I think he will not retire yet and if Dana tries to release him, he will just transfer to Bellator to continue fighting. Unfortunately, almost every UFC event there's one new and young fighter born to take over what they have left.
Surprised to see Arlovski winning that fight with Stefan Struve.
I thought Kunitskaya can beat Cyborg, she really went for it on the first few seconds of the fight and tried to take her down but Cyborg is one h*ll of a striker.

[btc_angela]

@btc_angela. Yes, everyone missed Brian's height and reach advantage hehe. I am happy that he won. I would very much would like to watch him and Max Holloway for the championship than Frankie Edgar.

Frankie is old now and he had his time. But is time for the young fighters to take over.

Frankie Edgar had his time in the octagon but I think he will not retire yet and if Dana tries to release him, he will just transfer to Bellator to continue fighting. Unfortunately, almost every UFC event there's one new and young fighter born to take over what they have left.
Surprised to see Arlovski winning that fight with Stefan Struve.
I thought Kunitskaya can beat Cyborg, she really went for it on the first few seconds of the fight and tried to take her down but Cyborg is one h*ll of a striker.

I'm commenting as a fan of Frankie Edgar. Yes, we enjoyed a lot of his fight but sometimes they need to understand where to draw the line.

I also thought that Kunitskaya has the tools to beat Cyborg and maybe the strategy she thinks is to shoot early and see how Cyborg reacts. But Cyborg was well prepared and her striking is right on the money. Kunitskaya was caught and wasn't able to recover from those bombs that Cyborg rained on her.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

I'm commenting as a fan of Frankie Edgar. Yes, we enjoyed a lot of his fight but sometimes they need to understand where to draw the line.

I also thought that Kunitskaya has the tools to beat Cyborg and maybe the strategy she thinks is to shoot early and see how Cyborg reacts. But Cyborg was well prepared and her striking is right on the money. Kunitskaya was caught and wasn't able to recover from those bombs that Cyborg rained on her.

It is really hard to pick against Cyborg as she is the best fighter in the world for a very long time,Kunitskaya was downplaying the punching power of Cyborg and she could not really take a proper punch from her,she took down and nothing happened,she just stood up and blasted her without giving any more chances,the only fight i want to see now is against Amanda Nunes.

[btc_angela]

I'm commenting as a fan of Frankie Edgar. Yes, we enjoyed a lot of his fight but sometimes they need to understand where to draw the line.

I also thought that Kunitskaya has the tools to beat Cyborg and maybe the strategy she thinks is to shoot early and see how Cyborg reacts. But Cyborg was well prepared and her striking is right on the money. Kunitskaya was caught and wasn't able to recover from those bombs that Cyborg rained on her.

It is really hard to pick against Cyborg as she is the best fighter in the world for a very long time,Kunitskaya was downplaying the punching power of Cyborg and she could not really take a proper punch from her,she took down and nothing happened,she just stood up and blasted her without giving any more chances,the only fight i want to see now is against Amanda Nunes.

I agree that its really hard to pick against her, but surprises can be a bitch sometimes. Another good example is Rhonda Rousey  losing her belt against Holly Holm. And as gamblers, we all love to bet on the underdog.

Well, its really a risk that she takes and probably the issue is that he didn't have the chin to hold against the power punch of Cyborg. Amanda Nunes vs Cyborg will be awesome, but its still on-hold because its gonna be Nunes vs Pennington at UFC 224.