5 reasons why Cris Cyborg will beat Amanda Nunes
All the news about UFC 232 right now might be surrounding the main event between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson, but flying under the radar somewhat is a fantastic co-main event as UFC Women’s Featherweight champion Cris Cyborg defends her title against current UFC Women’s Bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes.
This looks like Cyborg’s biggest challenge in years; Nunes hasn’t lost a fight since 2014, and since then she’s been on a phenomenal streak and has beaten the likes of Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey and Valentina Shevchenko. But can ‘The Lioness’ really defeat Cyborg?
Personally, I don’t think she can – and here are 5 reasons why.
#5 Nunes doesn’t have the power to finish Cyborg
Last December we saw Cyborg successfully defend her title against Holly Holm, and when she won a unanimous decision, it became clear that to defeat the Brazilian, any challenger would have to deal with two primary issues. Firstly, they would have to have the durability to stand up to Cyborg’s massive striking power, but secondly and more importantly, they’d need the power themselves to actually hurt the champ.
Holm simply didn’t possess such power, but Nunes – with 5 KO’s or TKO’s on her UFC record – should be different. But is she, really? I’m not so sure. If you actually look at her victories, only two of them really came via her outright striking power – against Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler, two fighters noted for a lack of durability.
Of her other TKO’s, Raquel Pennington was broken down over the course of 5 rounds, while Nunes’ wins over Germaine de Randamie and Sheila Gaff came from ground-and-pound. Nunes has hurt other opponents standing – Miesha Tate and Sara McMann were both dropped prior to being submitted – but against an opponent with an iron chin like Cyborg, it doesn’t feel like ‘The Lioness’ will have enough power to win – particularly moving up from 135lbs.
A one-punch finish of Cyborg doesn’t seem possible, and so if Nunes gets drawn into a striking exchange, it doesn’t look like she’ll come out on top.