UFC 219 preview: Learning from the losses of UFC champion Cris Cyborg

This Saturday night, Cris Cyborg defends her UFC title against Holly Holm. In this preview, let’s take a look at the very few losses on the champ’s record.

At this Saturday’s UFC 219, Cris Cyborg makes the first ever defense of the UFC Featherweight title, when she takes on Holly Holm. For this title fight, we’re bringing back out Learning From the Losses series - to look at the career of the champ through the lens of her career losses. But for Cyborg, we need to expand our view a bit as the champ only has one career MMA loss. So here, we’ll look at both her lone MMA loss, and her lone official Muay Thai loss. These fights are not on Fight Pass, so instead we will include YouTube embeds below - follow along and share your own thoughts in the comments.

MMA - Erica Paes (Debut) def. Cris Cyborg (Debut), Sub (Round 1, 1:46)
May 17, 2005 - Show Fight 2

THE OPPONENT: This was a clash between two debuting Brazilian fighter. Paes would go 1-1 in 2005, take 8 years off the sport, and return in 2013 with an overall record of 3-2. In addition to Cyborg, she also took on Bethe Correia, dropping a decision to Correia in 2013. Of note: Paes trained with Brazilian Top Team at this time, with Cyborg of course with Chute Boxe. Old school Brazilian MMA fans know BTT vs. Chute Boxe is one of the sport’s all time camp vs. camp rivalries, which meant that the crowd here was red-hot, going absolutely nuts for everything. You’ll never hear a crowd like this for an 0-0 vs. 0-0 match-up - it’s bonkers.

WHAT HAPPENED: This is a lot like the debut fight of Amanda Nunes that we looked at earlier. Cyborg is pure, raw aggression here and she attacks like a wild person - even wild by Cyborg standards. Paes manages to get the fight down to the mat, where Cyborg is not comfortable, and from there she locks up a weird double knee-bar for the tap.

LESSON: Cyborg needs to both calm down the wild aggression and be able to function should the fight hit the mat. Because in MMA, at some point the fight WILL hit the mat.

DID SHE LEARN?: Definitely. Cyborg is not out there submitting people, but she’s shown that she can hang on the ground, and she’s also become more measured in her aggression.

RELEVANCE TODAY: None. This is not the same fighter in action Saturday night.

MUAY THAI – Jorina Baars (32-0-3) def. Cris Cyborg (2-0), UD (49-45, 48-45, 49-44)
March 28, 2014 – Lion Fight 14

THE OPPONENT: Jorina Baars comes from the superb Dutch system, and has been a pro since 2000. She is a Lion Fight champion, winning gold in this fight. She still holds that title, and now splits her time between Lion Fight and Bellator Kickboxing. She remains undefeated as of this writing. Baars is one of the very elite women’s Muay Thai fighters in the world.

WHAT HAPPENED: Baars is an excellent technical striker and she comes in here with a pretty clear strategy: keep Cyborg at bay. She executes this very well, with particular success using a teep to the face every time Cyborg tries to come in. Once Cyborg does get in, Baars has a good Muay Thai clinch game that she uses to nullify Cyborg’s inside attack and land her own strikes from the clinch. The end result is that by the end of round 1, Cyborg is visibly tentative and not bringing the fight to Baars. That makes it more of a fight at range, and that’s a game that favors the more technically minded Baars.

LESSON: First things first, let’s be clear that this is a Muay Thai fight. Larger gloves, different rule-set. So we’re not making a perfect apples to apples comparison here. That said, Cyborg did need to acknowledge some takeaways here, specifically how to deal with that more technical fighter, and how to have options should your Plan A not work.

DID SHE LEARN?: It seems that she did. Cyborg has become more technical herself in the time since, though she has not since fought a fighter of the technical striking skill level of Baars (because, to be fair, there simply aren’t too many other women at that level).

RELEVANCE TODAY: Again, it’s Muay Thai, so that alone makes the relevance lower. But not zero. Because Cyborg remains a striker, and on Saturday, she fights a striker. Not only that, she fights a counter-striker who could feasibly utilize the same strategy Baars did here. If Saturday’s fight was Cyborg vs. Ronda Rousey, I would say there’s zero relevance here. But against Holm? It’s notable.

FINAL VERDICT

Jorina Baars laid out a path to victory over Cyborg, and it’s a path that Holly Holm does have the technical skills to walk. I doubt we will see Holm go for the submission win – she would be wise to look at what Baars did and aply that to her own game. If she does, and if she can be at the top of her game (a very big IF given Holm’s current 1-3 slide), then an upset is indeed possible.

Join us here at Bloody Elbow Saturday night for live fight night coverage of Cris Cyborg vs. Holly Holm at UFC 219.