Is the winner of UFC 219 main event the women’s G.O.A.T.?

UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg defends her belt vs. former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm at UFC 219. A great case can be made that the winner is the WMMA G.O.A.T. but during a recent media conference call, both fighters declined to make the claim.

I never think like that, said Cyborg, as transcribed by Simon Samano for MMAjunkie. I think always, you know, each fight I respect my opponents. I have a lot of girls I’ve already fought. I think Holly’s a great fighter for me, because she’s a big name, too. She has a lot of fights, a lot of experience. I think it’ll be a great fight.

I’ll leave the people to think like that about me. I don’t think like that. I have to think about getting better each fight.

You have to be prepared for anything. Can’t just go fight and think you’re going to finish in the first round. If it happens, yes, I’m very blessed about finishing my fights soon. But you need to train and prepare for everything. It’s MMA, 25 minutes. I can use all the tools I have.

Cyborg is the consensus choice for women’s G.O.A.T. at present, never having lost since her first fight, and generally winning via destruction and destroy. However, Holly Holm was one of the greatest female boxers of her generation, and then beat Ronda Rousey and took her title. She too declined the hype the main event as a G.O.A.T. fight.

I know that a win would definitely be a huge thing for my legacy and my career, but it’s definitely not something that would just define it right now, said Holm. Even with a win I would still want to push forward and be succeeding after this fight. There have been fights in my career that I’ve won that have helped with what I feel is my legacy, but each fight is not the defining fight. It’s the whole career and every opponent that’s gotten me to here, the whole journey along the way.

She’s always been really aggressive in her fights, and she’s a strong opponent. That can be an intimidating type of fight. She might come aggressive, and she might not. We’re going to be prepared for either one. … It’s not like we’ve trained this whole camp [thinking], ‘OK, she’s aggressive, so she’s going to come forward, and let’s just do this.’ She might want to stop and counter. She might want to move more. She might want to work on her clinch, do wrestling. There’s a lot going on in an MMA fight, and we’ve been training to be ready for any of those situations.

UFC 219: Cyborg vs. Holm will be held on December 30, 2017 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.