The Complete Guide to UFC 222: Cyborg vs. Kunitskaya
The UFC returns this weekend with a sneaky-good pay per view card that features one of the best featherweight fights we've seen in quite some time. Oh, and there's another featherweight fight that won't be a fight at all.
It is perhaps fitting that on the same week Ronda Rousey started her full-time career with World Wrestling Entertainment, this Saturday's main event features Cris "Cyborg" Justino, Rousey's long-time nemesis who never actually got to face her in the Octagon. Five years ago, if you'd told me Rousey would be in a pro wrestling ring while Cyborg would be the one saving a UFC pay per view event by agreeing to a featherweight title fight on short notice...I'd have looked at you quizzically, at the very least.
And yet, here we are.
Justino agreed to save the UFC and Dana White from the ignobility of having to cancel or move a UFC pay per view card to free television. In return, she gets to face another undersized opponent who faces impossibly long odds.
Thankfully, we also get a sublime "old man vs. top prospect" featherweight fight in the co-main event and a semi-stacked undercard to go with it.
Let's jump straight into the thick of things with our complete look at everything from UFC 222: Cyborg vs. Kunitskaya.
Fight Pass Prelims
1 of 7
Light Heavyweight
Jordan Johnson vs. Adam Milstead
Here is that rarest of UFC sightings: two light heavyweight prospects facing off against each other.
Aside from the (sometimes) two-woman featherweight division, the light heavyweight ranks are the UFC's weakest point. Have been for quite some time, actually, and it's largely due to the top two or three fighters in the division creating a choke point for anyone looking to make their name in the division Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz helped put on the map. After all, would you want to carve a path for yourself at 205, knowing that Jon Jones or Daniel Cormier are waiting for you at the end. Yeah. I wouldn't either.
But here are Johnson and Milstead, doing just that.
Johnson is undefeated, having finished his first five professional fights and earning a decision win in LFA before moving to the UFC. He has scored two decision wins over Henrique da Silva and Marcel Fortuna to keep his perfect record intact. Milstead used to compete at heavyweight, but decided to make the cut after being manhandled by Curtis Blaydes. That loss changed to a No Contest after Blaydes tested positive for marijuana.
Milstead is jumping to light heavyweight against Johnson, a man with the very same skillset than Blaydes. Johnson is a former All American wrestler at Iowa, hardly a slouch of an NCAA program. He should be able to use those skills to nullify anything Milstead wants to do.
Johnson by decision
Bryan Caraway vs. Cody Stamman
Well, you can't call him Mr. Tate anymore. So there's that, and at least that's something. Bryan Caraway rose to fame as the other half of former women's bantamweight champion Miesha Tate, but also as one of new WWE superstar Ronda Rousey's favorite punching bags.
The thing about Caraway is, you can joke about him being Mr. Tate, and you probably have. But you also have to know he's a very good fighter. A glance at his career record will leave you with that impression, but it's his May 2016 win over Aljamain Sterling that should leave the biggest mark on your consciousness.
The problem here? Caraway hasn't fought since the win over Sterling. That was nearly two years ago. Time is not on his side, and neither is cage rust.
Stamman by decision
Zak Ottow vs. Mike Pyle
This is the swan song for Mike Pyle, genuinely one of the nicest people you'll ever meet in this sport. Unfortunately, as usually is the case with fighters who have announced their retirement, the UFC has matched him up with Zak Ottow in an artempt to help Ottow right the ship after losing to renowned eye-gouging cheater Li Jiangling.
But, look: Pyle is one of the good guys. He'll probably lose this fight, but Pyle is the kind of dude who would absolutely go out there and screw up the UFC's plans. I think he'll do it one more time.
Pyle by submission
Fox Sports 1 Prelims
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C.B. Dolloway vs. Hector Lombard
Remember when Hector Lombard signed with the UFC? Man, there was so much hype. He was a killer coming over from Bellator, and then...splat. Three wins. Six losses. And to top it off, a test failure for anabolic steroids.
Yeah, Lombard has been a bust. And he's lost four in a row, which means he's likely at the end of his leash here and faces an immediate future in Rizin. Which, come to think of it, might actually be the best place for him. The good news? C.B. Dolloway is just the kind of grizzled veteran who can send him there.
Dolloway by decision
John Dodson vs. Pedro Munhoz
Dodson and Munhoz were scheduled to fight back on February 3 in Brazil. But when Munhoz came in four pounds over the bantamweight limit, Dodson refused to take the fight despite the UFC urging him to do so. He's on the final fight of his UFC deal, and didn't want to take the chance of a loss hurting his chances of a new, higher-paying deal.
Which, honestly, makes Dodson one of the smartest men in mixed martial arts. He's willing to stand up to the UFC and to test free agency. If a better offer comes in from outside his current organization, Dodson will take it. He's a businessman and doesn't care about corporate brands or anything like that.
He's got his work cut out for him. A few years ago, I would've picked Dodson to win this easily, but Munhoz is a tough out and Dodson has slowed a bit in recent fights. Though it must be said, Dodson at his absolute slowest would still be a great deal faster than most other humans.
Dodson by KO
Beneil Dariush vs. Alexander Hernandez
Dariush is coming off a majority draw with Evan Dunham back at UFC 216, and for his return fight, they've given him an opponent he should and will beat with ease. Dariush is simply better in every facet of the game than Hernandez, and the fact that Alexander stepped in on extremely late notice as a replacement for the injured Bobby Green doesn't help his chances, either.
Darius by submission
Mackenzie Dern vs. Ashley Yoder
Here we have the much-anticipated debut of jiu-jitsu wonderkid Mackenzie Dern. Dern was the top-ranked female jiu-jitsu player in the world for a time. She is a former ADCC and no-gi black belt world champion. In short, her ground game is absolutely spectacular, and the promise she showed as a marketable and very good fighter was enough for the UFC to bankroll her early fights in LFA and Invicta; they paid her fight salaries with the knowledge that soon enough, they'd have a budding new superstar on their hands.
And now, she is here, in the UFC with an undefeated record and an opponent tailor-made for a spectacular win.
Dern by submission
Ketlen Viera vs. Cat Zingano
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The return of Cat Zingano is one of MMA's best feel-good stories of 2018. Zingano has endured unfathomable hardships over the past half-decade, beginning with the suicide of her ex-husband. It's not just her excellence at fighting in the cage that is cause for a warm welcome from the fans; it's also her decency as a human being.
In Veira, Zingano doesn't have an easy return. Zingano is a slight favorite here, but only slight, and she'll have to be on top of her game if she wants to score her first win in nearly four years in her first fight in almost two years.
Zingano by decision
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Andrei Arlovski vs. Stefan Struve
4 of 7
Two heavyweights with susceptible chins facing each other? What could go wrong?
Arlovksi is 1-5 in his last six Octagon outings, while Struve is 3-3. The most remarkable stat, however, is that despite being just 30 years old, Struve has been in the UFC for nearly a full decade. And Arlovski, of course, has been in the UFC seemingly since the dawn of time.
Between them, they have 39 fights in the UFC's heavyweight division. Thirty. Nine. Fights.
Really, there's not much analysis to do here. Struve is long, but doesn't fight long. Arlovski finds himself in fire fights far too often. The first man to get touched cleanly on the chin here will likely go down and go down hard.
Struve by KO
Sean O'Malley vs Andre Soukhamthath
5 of 7
O'Malley is one of Dana White's newest pet projects in the vein of Conor McGregor. He's 23 years old, has a great head of hair and a ton of charisma, and he was a standout from the first season of the Tuesday Night Contender's Series.
Unlike McGregor's career arc, however, O'Malley isn't being fed gimme opponents. Soukhamthath is a tough knockout artist with a well-rounded submission game; his two losses in three UFC fights doesn't properly give you a sense of just how good he is.
But he won't be good enough here. O'Malley is a slight underdog, but he'll walk out with his hands held high.
O'Malley by TKO
Frankie Edgar vs. Brian Ortega
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Man, what a fight this is.
Ortega is the UFC's next great featherweight prospect. He is a jiu-jitsu dynamo with the sort of Demian Maia-like ability to take your back and choke you out in the blink of an eye. His December submission of Cub Swanson - a perennial and feared featherweight contender - was so revelatory, it was nearly a physical experience for those of us watching at home.
And so of course Ortega must face old man Edgar, the killer of prospects, if he wishes to ascend to the ranks of the featherweight elite. Edgar, who is somehow overlooked after all these years despite putting together one of the best records in the history of the sport, has made a career out of beating back prospects. He's been doing it forever, and he's never been finished by an opponent.
Sadly for Ortega, we're in for more of the same. Edgar is too wily, too technical and simply too skilled for Ortega at this point in his career. If we revisit this fight in a year or so, perhaps the outcome will be different. Here? Edgar wins with ease.
Edgar by decision
Cris Cyborg vs. Yana Kunitskaya
7 of 7
What is there to really say about this fight? I've grown tired of seeing these sorts of matchups for Cyborg: another bantamweight opponent coming up to face her at featherweight for a championship which nobody has come close to wresting away from her.
This is not a knock on Cyborg. It's not even a knock on the UFC. There is only one good featherweight fighter in the world in the female division, and it's Cyborg. To even get her an opponent is a test in matchmaking skill. Kunitskaya is the current and soon to be former Invicta bantamweight champion, but she's...moving up ten pounds to face the scariest and best female fighter ever.
This isn't a contest. It's an assault. But there are no real options for Cyborg opponents that'll be any different.
Cyborg by TKO
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