FIGHT TIME
Saturday, June 17th
5:00 AM PST
8:00 AM EST
Singapore
The Preacher's Daughter Returns to the Cage in this Striker's Delight Main Event!
Holly 'The Preacher's Daughter' Holm:
The former IBA and WBF pro boxing champion returns to the Fight Night slot as a big favorite over her upcoming competitor. Holly has carried over her boxing and kickboxing fundamentals to mixed martial arts, and although she was a former boxing champ with a record of 33-2, her kicks are the only true weapon in her arsenal. She has shown power with the left high kick, and she is able to win most early rounds of the fight with her aggressive combinations and long, hard to reach frame. She has a very awkward orthodox stance, she carries her elbow high with the lead hand to guard blows, and she fires punches off in strange intervals to throw her opponent's timing off.
She is best when she controls the octagon, and is able to land hard shots on girls early. Ladies like Raquel Pennington and Marion Reneau weren't able to get into a rhythm until the third round against Holm. Their their brawling style worked well for The Preacher's Daughter and her immaculate counter striking, she was able to sail to smooth decisions en route to a title shot. It has been nearly half a year since we have seen Holm in the cage, expect her to be healthy, ready, and vicious come fight night!
Bethe 'Pitbull' Correia:
Perennial top ten contender Bethe Correia will be returning to the cage for a fun style matchup in a technical striker vs. brawler. Pitbull is great at dragging girls into the fight she wants: she will eat hard shots to get into the pocket, and once there she will unload punches with everything she's got. Bethe lacks a lot of technicality in her striking prowess, but her heart and sheer ferocity carries her through adversity and has allowed her to achieve four Octagon victories.
Correia has experienced a couple tough losses: Rousey finished her with heavy blows in the first round, Jessica Eye beat her by split decision in a fight many thought she won, she also was dropped and maimed badly (in the third round) by Marion Reneau in her last bout...her will to persevere through bad positions won her a draw with the judges but the fans saw a somewhat broken fighter. It will be on Bethe to train hard for her first five round fight; with her brawling style, I can see an excellently fun clash with both women engaging blows and never backing down
Prediction:
The women's bantamweight division is an odd place to say the least.. with Queen Rousey long gone, there aren't many eyes on the division anymore. With Nunes vs. Shevchenko coming up to determine an undisputed champion, we have this fight the week before to provide a possible contender. This is a main event of two top 10 fighters in their division going to war for 25 minutes, and that is never a bad thing.
Holly will have an immense height and reach advantage: Bethe 64" reach, Holly 70" reach.
One can argue Holly doesn't use this reach well (which she doesn't), but she is excellent at setting up kicks with jabs, and she is supremely patient (which is kryptonite to brawlers). This is one matchup where 'mma math' may actually work.Raquel Pennington is a definitely a wild card here, and although Holm beat her and Correia lost to her, both fights were close enough to exclude from our control group...so...we look at the Marion Reneau fight. Bethe seemed to eat a lot of hard right hands and front kicks (teeps) to the body, something Reneau most likely picked up after her loss to Holm. 'Jackson WinkleJohn' is a brilliant camp with cerebral coaches who plan for one-dimensional fighters like Bethe, as insulting as that may sound, it is the reality of a high-level combat sport in which mentality is 90% of the game.
Holly will pick Bethe a part with jabs and front kicks, and I don't see the flurries or power of Bethe having an effect on the strong-jawed Holm. The Preacher's Daughter learned a lot from her loss to the Peruvian Pistol (Valentina Shevchenko), expect to see some new tricks from this former champion...and an epic beat down!
Prediction: Holly Holm by TKO Round 3
