UFC 239: Nunes vs Holm Preview

UFC 239: Nunes vs Holm Preview

By Claudia Peterson

International Fight Week 2019 takes places at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas NV on Saturday July 6th, with a highly anticipated women’s bantamweight title fight as the co-headliner of the night.

Current champion Amanda Nunes will defend her title against former champion Holly Holm. For many, this is the last challenge for Nunes in order to cement her GOAT status amongst female MMA fighters.

Nunes (17-4 MMA) (10-1 UFC) made her UFC debut in 2013, where she defeated Sheila Gaff via TKO in the very first round. She then went on a quiet rise to the very top of the ranks over the next few years, and has faced some very tough competition along the way.

Her only loss in the UFC came at the hands of Cat Zingano back in 2014, and she has been perfect since, and has grown a lot as a fighter, albeit by taking advantage of her own power and ability to finish fights early in the contest. She also holds impressive wins over former champions in Cris Cyborg, Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate and Germaine De Randamie. She will seek to add Holly Holm to that list on Saturday night.

Holm (12-4 MMA) (5-4 UFC) made her much anticipated UFC debut as an undefeated fighter back in 2015, in a somewhat lackluster performance against Raquel Pennington, where Holm won via split decision. She went on to face Marion Reneau later that year and won by unanimous decision.

Only after her second fight in the UFC, Holm was granted a title shot against Ronda Rousey, in a match-up that purposely left out Miesah Tate, and with it a result that completely changed the landscape of the women’s bantamweight division. Holm, a +700 underdog, shocked the world by defeating Rousey via knockout early in the second round.

Holm gave her best ever performance in the UFC in that fight, but has not been able to replicate it since, and has gone 2-4 in all her fights since. She lost her title to Miesha Tate early in 2016, then lost to Valentina Shcenvecko at bantaweight, lost a featherweight title bid to Germaine de Randamie and later Cris Cyborg.

Her only two wins since the Rousey knockout have been a knockout win over Bethe Correia and a unanimous decision win over Megan Anderson. Although Holly Holm is one of the best fighters at both bantamweight and featherweight, her tenure in the UFC has left a lot to be desired. Yet, she remains the only thread left for Nunes.

It is not easy to predict how this fight may go down on Saturday, but it is safe to say that Holm will most likely showcase her vintage fighting style, moving and fainting a lot. She may lie in wait for Amanda to make the first move and lead the dance, and will look to counter the entire time.

Holm should take advantage of her superior cardio and tire Nunes and making her chase Holm the majority of the fight. In order for this to be successful for Holm though, she will have to counter perfectly, and look for an opportunity to potentially utilize her signature headkick as she tires out Nunes.

As far as Nunes, we have seen in the past that as a fight gets longer, she can tend to wear down and become more confused and not as technical and that is when the Brazilian may begin to throw wildly, but I doubt she will want to be that reckless against Holm, who can counter almost perfectly.

Nunes also knows that she will probably not be able to knock out Holm early in the first round. Nunes will most likely keep the fight on the feet and utilise her deceptive long punching range to attack Holly and overwhelm her through the fight to the point where she can get a TKO.

Nunes may attempt to use takedowns as a way to help her in the fight and possibly get a finish, but only if she figures out early on that she can be stronger than Holly in the clinch and be able to keep her down.

Whichever way this fight goes, these two great fighters will certainly put on a show.

Prediction: Nunes by TKO