Coach Jason Parillo believes “different animal” Cris Cyborg will dominate Holly Holm

This Saturday, in the main event of UFC 219, UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg will attempt to defend her title against former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm.

Though the ever-destructive Cyborg is generally regarded as a sure-thing against most of her opponents, this is not the case leading up to this fight Holm. In fact, Holm is being given a very real chance by many members of the MMA community. Holm’s coach Mike Winkeljohn even believes his student will finish Cyborg.

“Holly’s stopping Cris Cyborg probably later in the fight,” he said on a recent episode of Submission Radio. “You know, round four, round five she’s gonna finish the fight, shock the world again. [Holm isn’t being paid what she’s worth]. No, she deserves much more, but it is what it is. Cyborg’s got the title, Holly doesn’t have a title, so we don’t have all the chips at the moment, and the fight is what’s most important. Beating Cris Cyborg puts Holly back and higher where she will be the, I guess, biggest name ever in women’s combat sports. So she’s gotta win the fight and got to do that first, and then maybe she’ll get paid even more in the next one.”

The confidence in Holm, of course, not does not extend to Cyborg’s camp. Her coach Jason Parillo believes his student will maul Holm, as she’s done to so many other women. In his eyes, she’s simply on another level.

“I believe (Cyborg) can go in there and dominate, and that’s what we expect. We also expect the worst,” Parillo recently told MMAJunkie.com. “We’re training for how this fight can go any way.”

“Cris is just on another level than these girls. I really, truly believe she is. I know Holly has all the experience in the world and is very smart and an intelligent fighter, and they’re going to go in there with a hell of a game plan, but Cris is a different animal.”

What’s your prediction for Cris Cyborg’s UFC 219 fight with Holly Holm?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 27/12/2017.