UFC 250: Nunes vs. Spencer - Predictions and Picks
After making a return to Las Vegas this past weekend, the UFC is back on pay-per-view in their spiritual home this weekend, as UFC 250: Nunes vs. Spencer goes down from the promotion’s APEX facility.
The card is a pretty strong one considering the circumstances and the lack of international fighters, with one of the all-time greats in the main event and a number of fights capable of affecting title pictures up and down the card.
Here are the predicted outcomes for UFC 250: Nunes vs. Spencer.
#1 UFC Women’s Featherweight Title: Amanda Nunes vs. Felicia Spencer
There have been a number of double champions in UFC history now. Since Conor McGregor first achieved the feat in 2016, we’ve also seen Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo and Amanda Nunes join him on that list.
Nunes captured the Bantamweight title back in July 2016 and then added the Featherweight title to her crown when she knocked out Cris Cyborg in December 2018. But where Cejudo and McGregor seemingly had no interest in defending both titles, ‘The Lioness’ is following in the steps of Cormier.
After defending her Bantamweight title twice in 2019, this will be her first Featherweight title defense. Her opponent is Canada’s Felicia Spencer, a tough fighter who stands at 2-1 in the UFC and 8-1 overall. So can Nunes continue to make history? Or is an upset on the cards?
Brazil’s Nunes is undoubtedly one of the greatest female fighters in MMA history. In fact, there’s a very strong argument that she stands outright as the greatest, full stop. Holding an overall record of 19-4, she’s lost just once since joining the UFC in 2013 – in an all-time classic war against Cat Zingano.
Outside of that, she’s won 11 fights in the Octagon and is currently on a 10-fight win streak. Incredibly, 8 of those 11 wins have come against current or former UFC titleholders. It’s a feat that even the likes of Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre can’t boast of.
In terms of her style, ‘The Lioness’ has very few weaknesses. She’s a terrifying and powerful striker, but where she was once a berserker, she’s now got the ability to pick her shots, something that’s brought her some incredible knockouts as of late – including over Cyborg, Holly Holm and Ronda Rousey.
And while the fight was a dull one, she was even able to outpoint the great Valentina Shevchenko on the feet in their second fight at UFC 215.
The Brazilian is also a more than capable grappler, showing tremendous abilities on the ground in her wins over Miesha Tate, Sara McMann and most recently, Germaine de Randamie. Her cardio was once a knock – she gassed in her loss to Zingano and also in her first fight with Shevchenko – but the fact that she comfortably went 5 rounds with de Randamie just 6 months ago suggests she’s now closed that hole too.
So how can Spencer win this fight? The truth is that ‘The Phenom’ is probably going to struggle. The UFC announcers have pushed the Canadian as a “natural 145lber” but she isn’t huge and rangy like Megan Anderson, for instance; at 5’6” she’s shorter than many Bantamweights – Nunes included – and could clearly make 135lbs with a stricter diet.
A grappler by trade, Spencer’s definitely got finishing skills on the ground. She choked out Anderson in her UFC debut last summer and has 6 finishes to her name coming on the mat. But unfortunately, both of her UFC opponents clearly had deficiencies on the ground.
Anderson is a developing grappler and is seemingly improving, but the ground game is still her biggest weakness, while Spencer’s other victim – Zarah Fairn – was actually submitted by Anderson in the fight prior to her clash with Spencer.
The most telling fight, in truth, would be Spencer’s clash with Cyborg last summer. The fight saw her cut the Brazilian open in the clinch, but outside of that, she was unable to take the former champion down and found herself battered from pillar to post for 15 minutes.
The Canadian did display a tremendous chin, but outside of that, it was hard to take any positives from such a one-sided beating. So given that Nunes is undoubtedly a superior grappler to Cyborg and is even less likely to be taken down, then what can Spencer do?
In all honesty, the best I can see her doing is surviving the distance. With that said, a beating like the one she took from Cyborg is often career-altering, and even though she’s beaten an overmatched foe since, I could easily see Nunes simply overwhelming her with strikes early on. She’s as powerful as Cyborg on the feet but is also far more accurate.
Overall, this looks like a one-sided fight. I’m taking ‘The Lioness’ via second round TKO.
The Pick: Nunes via second round TKO