Holm coach initially surprised at title fight without Cyborg

Coach Mike Winkeljohn appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and discussed Holly Holm’s fight with Germaine de Randamie at UFC 208 on February 11, 2017 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The event is missing the best female fighter in MMA, the Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino.

Holm was open to fight Cyborg at a catchweight at the event. However, the UFC upped the stakes to a title fight for the league’s debut women’s featherweight division. Unfortunately, when Justino said she needed until March to recover from a weight cut, the UFC decided to proceed without her.

Exactly what happened, is Cyborg can’t make the normal 135-pound division and so, because she gets to play by special rules, we said okay look, we’ll fight you at 138, said the coach, as transcribed by Chuck Mindenhall for MMA Fighting. That was our first offer. I’m not going to lie, I probably would have went to 139 with it. But it wouldn’t have made sense for Holly, where the weight was at, to offer to fight her at a higher weight. Of course not, why would I do that?

Apparently [Cyborg] turned that down. And then Dana came up with a 145-pound title apparently Dana offered it to Cyborg before we even accepted that it was for a title, and I think she turned it down as well. So, that’s all I know about it other than Holly has never turned down a fight in her life. She’s willing to fight, no doubt about it, even out of her weight division. And how could you turn this one down? A title fight at 145? It puts her right back where she wants to go mentally. And when she has to step up, that’s her best for performance.

[I was at first] very surprised that they would offer without Cyborg involved. It makes sense now that Cyborg…they needed to put some fights together, I think, and Holly is a big draw. She can sell, and they needed some big fights, and they needed them now. They can’t wait down the road until Cyborg gets her weight down or whatever the case is. That’s just the way it played out.”

Winkeljohn was asked why he thought the UFC would hold a title fight without Cyborg.

I don’t know, it’s not for me to know why, said the coach. I think ‘Cyborg’ needed some more time to get down to weight, but I guess people are saying she’s out there power lifting, so she has no worry about it. She’s going to do what she wants. That’s her weight division, 145. Like I said, the smart move is Holly was at 135, and fighting her at 135 would have been the smart move, and 136 would have been a smart move. But that’s where we’re at.

So let’s get this title, and Cyborg, if she wants to be in line, great. If Nunes or Rousey are there and Holly wants to drop back down, great. I want to put Holly in a position where she really has to work hard and I love it when she’s the underdog.

If Holm beats Randamie, she becomes the first female fighter to hold belts in two divisions. And it sets up some massive next fights. Ronda Rousey fights bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 on December 30. If Rousey wins, the rematch with Holm for two titles could be the biggest fight in UFC history. A Nunes fight would be big. And a Cyborg fight would be big.

At that point in time it’s all about money, said Winkeljohn said. Pay-per-view points, all that kind of stuff. So, if she has a title, and I’ll tell you — if Nunes beats Rousey, I think Holly would like to go back down there and fight Nunes as well. If Cyborg’s the biggest money fight, that would be the fight. There’s no doubt about it, if Ronda wins the fight, I think that becomes one of the biggest fights the UFC has ever seen, and that would be the smart fight for everybody to take. I think Dana would agree on that.

The coach was asked about the prospects of seeing Holm at featherweight long term.

The cuts have never been easy, and Holly is very good size for 136,” she said. “Yes and no. But she’s right in between. I mean, a 140-pound division would probably be a great place for Holly Holm. And she’s getting older. She’s getting older and the cuts are getting a little bit harder on her, on her body, but she’s willing to fight in either division.