UFC 219 Betting Tips, Picks and Predictions

2017 was a year where I noticed the bookies tightening up their odds considerably. UFC 219 appears to be a throwback to the good old days because the card features several fighters with a good amount of value in their odds.

I usually like to keep things tight, but this is one of those events where we may end up with several bets. UFC 219 is one of those rare events that looks better for prefight betting than Live Betting. I believe we have a good chance of banking a solid profit on this one.

Cyborg vs Holly Holm Betting Tip and Prediction

Holly Holm is now 36 years old, and it appears that father time might be starting to catch up with her because she hasn’t looked good for a while now. In her last 3 fights, we saw her look tentative, weak and unimpressive against Bethe Correia, try to wall and stall against Germaine De Randamie, and before that she was outstruck by a natural Flyweight in Valentina Shevchenko. Now Holm faces the toughest test of her career, competing against the greatest female fighter of all time in a weight class above her natural weight.

Holly Holm has a Boxing background, but her Boxing hasn’t transitioned well to MMA. If you go and watch any of her past fights, you’ll see that she lacks power in her hands and most of her punches fall short. Holly seems reluctant to commit to strikes which means that she pulls most of her punches. This isn’t good against a strong, aggressive opponent like Cyborg who will walk her down and won’t mind eating one of Holm’s weak punches to land one of her big power strikes.

Holm’s most dangerous weapon is, of course, her infamous head kick, but her kicking game also gets her into a lot of trouble. Holm sets up her head kicks with a wide variety of teeps, sidekicks and push kicks. These kicks have been effective at setting up head kick knockouts against low-level strikers like Bethe Correia and Ronda Rousey, but they left her wide open to being taken down and countered against more experienced fighters like Miesha Tate and Valentina Shevchenko.

Holly’s biggest problem is that she throws lazy, naked kicks when she is off balance. They rarely land with power and only result in disrupting the rhythm of her opponent. Cyborg is a big, strong, berzerker and these kicks will not have any effect on her. Cyborg will walk through them and land big counters or takedowns while Holly is off balance. If Holly cannot throw these setup kicks, it will be extremely difficult for her to land the head kick KO and for that reason, her chances of winning this fight by flash KO are severely diminished.

When it comes to MMA, Cyborg is simply better than Holly Holm everywhere. Her clinch work and grappling are lightyears ahead of Holm’s, and Cyborg’s devastating Muay Thai based striking is far better suited to MMA than Holly Holm’s pitter-patter counter striking. This is one of those fights where Holm only has a kickers chance. If she lands one of her head kicks clean, it is enough to turn the lights off of any opponent, but it won’t be easy finding the time or space to land a kick like that on an aggressive opponent like Cyborg who will continually pressure her.

This is a nightmare matchup for Holly Holm because she lacks the power in her hands to stop Cyborg from coming forward. Cyborg loves to walk her opponent’s down and counter them with big power strikes. It’s difficult for me to see a situation where Holly could win this fight counter striking from the outside. Every time she gets into a range where she could land a strike, Cyborg will also be in range to counter, and Cyborg lands with much more significance. It’s very difficult to win fights from the outside in MMA unless you can land a few highlight reel shots or outstrike your opponent by a wide margin. Based on past performances it is extremely unlikely that Holly can do either of those things , so Cyborg is a great bet at the current odds.

Reasons for betting on Cyborg