Cris Cyborg vs. Holly Holm: What will go down:

Is this the greatest Female MMA match up ever?

Our main event of UFC 219 sees Brazilian striking ace Cris Cyborg attempt to make the premier defense of her Women's Featherweight title, as she faces former Bantamweight crown holder and 18x boxing champion Holly Holm in arguably the most intriguing and exciting women's match up of all time. Cyborg was crowned the champion against Tonya Evinger after a brutal barrage knockout, after Dutch kickboxer Germaine de Randamie was stripped of the title due to injury and reluctance to face Cyborg. Holm on the other hand executed a fantastic question mark kick to starch Bethe Correia after a controversial defeat to GDR in the inaugural meeting.

Undefeated since her pro debut back in 2005, former Invicta FC and Strikeforce queen Cris Cyborg has undoubtedly cemented her legacy as one of if not the greatest female mixed martial artists of all time, especially after securing that elusive UFC title back at UFC 214. Currently striking under the tutelage of the renowned Rafael Cordeiro, Curitiba native Cyborg has starched 16 separate opponents including Marloes Coenen, Leslie Smith, Charmaine Tweet, Faith Van Duin, Gina Carano, Shayna Baszler and maybe most brutally, Jan Finney, with referee Kim Winslow receiving drastic criticism for allowing Finney to take excessive punishment before stopping the bout. Cris is more than adapt on the ground as well with a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt under expert grappler André Galvao, a potential area where Cyborg may be able to gain the upper hand and pick up the victory over the counter striking oriented Holm.

Back at UFC 193 in Australia, Holm produced one of the biggest shocks since the UFC's establishment, executing a clever and concise counter striking game plan to stop Ronda Rousey in the second round after landing a stiff straight shot every time Rousey looked to utilize her superior Judo. Holm ducked under and managed to avoid the clinch on multiple occasions before a clean shot dropped Rousey to one knee and a left high kick from Holly ended the bout. In a quick turnaround at UFC 196, Miesha Tate was the first challenger to Holm's title, and despite dominating 'Cupcake' for the majority of five rounds, a shot out of desperation seen Miesha take the back of Holm and synced in a rear-naked choke, rendering Holm unconscious. The slide for Holm continued as recent Bantamweight title chaser Valentina Shevchenko utilized a check hook to out point 'The Preachers Daughter' over five rounds. The aforementioned controversial decision defeat to de Randamie was followed up by a phenomenal KO over Bethe Correia, earning Holm this matchup with Justino.

The result of this guaranteed 'barn burner' completely relies upon which sort of Cyborg shows up on Saturday. If we see the cautious and calculated approach that Cyborg used in her win over Evinger, the opportunity for Holm to use her high level counter striking drastically reduces. On the other hand, the aggressive, pace pushing and feet planting style of Cyborg used in almost all her previous matches, dramatically improves Holm's chance to connect with one of those stinging counters. In my opinion, Cyborg's most realistic path to a successful title defense is to exact her much more dense BJJ game to overcome Holly.

Cris Cyborg via second round knockout.

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