UFC 240: Holloway vs. Edgar - Predictions and Picks

#2 Cris Cyborg vs. Felicia Spencer

Cris Cyborg will be looking to bounce back from her loss to Amanda Nunes when she faces Felicia Spencer

After her stunning title loss to Amanda Nunes back in December, I’ll be honest and say I didn’t expect to see Cris Cyborg back in the Octagon any time soon. With talk about her leaving the UFC seemingly going around for years now, I figured she’d simply sit out until her contract ended and then head over to Japan.

She may well do that I guess, but not until after this fight – a strange-sounding bounce-back against Canada’s own Felicia Spencer.

Spencer made her UFC debut earlier this year and I don’t think I’m being unfair in suggesting that not many fans expected much from her. In fact, it felt like the UFC had brought her into the promotion simply to give a warm body for Megan Anderson to beat in order to set up a potential title shot. Well, Spencer threw that idea out of the window with a relatively easy first round submission.

That was the 8th win in a row for ‘Feenom’, who has only been fighting professionally since 2015, and she genuinely looked great in the fight too, grounding Anderson quickly, taking her back and then choking her out like she was a Gracie victim in the early 1990s. So does that mean she’s got a chance of beating Cyborg?

In two words, probably not. The problem with Anderson is that in MMA at least, she’s little more than athletic potential right now, a fantastic striker no doubt but with a horribly porous ground game, and we’ve seen countless times in MMA – with the likes of Melvin Guillard, for instance – that athletic potential doesn’t mean a lot in deep waters with a superior grappler.

Cyborg on the other hand is not a terrible grappler by any means; sure, she’s better known for her ferocious striking, but she’s a legitimate BJJ black belt with some serious chops on the ground.

And more to the point, unlike Anderson – who was taken down numerous times by fellow striker Holly Holm – Cyborg’s takedown defense is excellent. She can be taken down – Yana Kunitskaya managed it in 2018 – but she has the ability to simply power up to her feet, too.

And on the feet, even if Spencer is a better striker than I’m giving her credit for, she’s likely in over her head. Nunes proved that Cyborg isn’t a technical marvel standing, but few fighters have the punching power to counter on her in a trade as Nunes did, and in 2017 Cyborg comfortably stood and kickboxed with Holly Holm, winning a wide decision.

Basically I expect this to look like classic Cyborg fare pre-Nunes; Spencer might get an early takedown but she won’t be able to hold the Brazilian down, and once Cyborg’s back on her feet, the massacre is likely to begin.

The Pick: Cyborg via first round TKO