Bas: GDR can hang with Cris Cyborg

UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and discussed fellow Holland native UFC women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie. GDR was 37-0 in kickboxing before starting MMA, and Rutten believes that level of skill will allow her to hang on the feet with Cris Cyborg.

I saw this in her a long time ago, said Rutten, as transcribed by MMA Fighting. Fred Royers was her original coach, and he contacted me six years ago and he asked if she could come and train here, a few sessions with me. So she went over here and we trained a little bit, what she had to work on, because she’s a striker as well — a phenomenal striker — so I worked with her and then she went on.

And I knew that, in the striking department — once you’re 47-0 and you’re in Holland, and you do it in Europe, it’s a different kind of level there, the striking, than it is overseas. It simply is. … The striking is just at a real high level because everybody is doing it. It’s almost like soccer. You’ve got gyms everywhere. Every week, there’s fights everywhere, in bars, in little sport gyms. Whatever it is. There’s a lot of Thai boxing, and because a lot of people do it, a lot of people are very good at it. So I knew that her striking was going to beat Holly Holm’s striking, although I’m very impressed with Holly Holm as well.

Jorina Baars, she’s from Holland, she beat Cyborg in Lion Fight. So yeah, I do think that [de Randamie] can hang with her. But I think once Cyborg gets ahold of her and she can throw her down, we’re going to have a big problem. [De Randamie] really wants to keep this fight standing against her, and keep the distance between them. You want to stay outside the distance just enough that you can counter, but do not go clinching with Cyborg. I think that’s a bad thing.

The GDR vs. Cyborg fight is not yet set, but it’s coming.