Holm will beat Nunes because of her intangibles

[Eater of Souls]

Most of the relevant evidence clearly gives the edge to Nunes.

1. Holly is 2-4 since 2016. And her 2 wins were against very weak competition, i.e., Megan Anderson and Bethe Correia. Anderson is 1-2 in the UFC, with her only win coming via injury. And Bethe has only won 1 fight since 2015. Meanwhile, Nunes has been on an absolute tear in recent years, destroying some of the biggest names in WMMA.

2. MMAth is obviously not dispositive, but looking at common opponents is certainly informative. Holly got finished by Miesha and lost clear decisions to Cyborg and Valentina. On the other hand, Nunes bludgeoned Cyborg and Miesha in the first round and beat Valentina twice.

3. Holly is 37 and seemingly on the backside of her career, while Nunes is 31 and still appears to be getting better.

4. People suggest that Nunes will gas. But the last time she had cardio issues was 2016 against Valentina. Since then, she's looked great in 5 round fights against Valentina and Pennington. It appears that any cardio issues she had are now resolved. And even if she still had cardio issues, they only affected her in fights that involved copious amounts of grappling. It seems unlikely that Holly would employ such a tactic, since she's not a grappler and Nunes is clearly better on the ground. If anything, Holly might use the clinch (where she is actually very strong) to tire Nunes out. But that seems like a long shot.

Not really sure about Holly in the clinch either. She did not exactly do well in the clinch against the much smaller Shevchenko. Sure, Shev has a great clinch but in the ring she looked like Holly's kid sister.

 

[blaseblah]

Holly has reach, height, better boxing technique, footwork, and hands. She needs to avoid Amanda's pressure, and make it a long range fight, go for counter jabs, straights and hooks. Use lateral movement to circle out and make Amanda whiff her big shots.

Amanda needs to pressure and dig past Holly's punches.

It's a difficult fight to call, actually. Amanda is favored, but I wouldn't be surprised if the upset happened.

They are the same height and reach is negligible. Holly on paper has a one inch reach advantage but Nunes punches are very long. And while Holly has the boxing background, Nunes clearly has the better hands. Holly's boxing has looked remarkably ineffective against mid tier fighters like Pennington and Bethe. The only time I've ever been impressed with Holly's hands was against Ronda, who ran at her with no defense. The only advantage you mentioned for Holly that I'd actually give her is footwork. Which will help her avoid getting knocked out but I don't see how she is going to actually hurt Nunes with her hands.

 

[GripHouse]

Ishtangibles

 

[Zelig]

Holly is a really tough match up but the problem is Nunes has fought Valentina 8 rounds now on top of overcoming energy expenditure problems early in her career, she will be patient and Holly will wait to counter.. we will see how good her chin is

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Holly has a chance, for sure, but I think Amanda is in her prime and will dig in those tiny shorts.

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

Holly has a chance, for sure, but I think Amanda is in her prime and will dig in those tiny shorts.

“The preacher’s daughter” will have to be exorcised when Nunes is done with her

 

[Crimp_Keeper]

Nunez 50-47

 

[humdizzle]

ISH ISH ISH !!!

 

[Kyojiro Kagenuma]

Anything is possible but I favor Amanda over everyone atm.

 

[DagOban**]

Her intangibles?

You perv.

 

[JKS]

Considering Nunes outpointed Valentina, I expect her to do the same vs Holly.

 

[One MMA Fan]

Holly is old man.. chances are low imo.

I will root for her tho.

 

[Kwinkle Kwink]

When's the last time Holm looked good? I mean I could see her EESH EESH ESSH her way to a decision with superior footwork and boxing, but I hope not.

What the hell is wrong with you?
She's not Mexican!!
It's...ISH ISH ISH!!!

 

[Kwinkle Kwink]

Holy gonna win via swarming Nunes with ish ish ishes!

ISH's a done deal!

 

[Natural Order]

Holm's movement and footwork when circling is very good. If she keeps the fight in motion and uses her range she could do to Amanda what she did to Honda. Amanda best not get too aggro and wear herself out.

But realistically, if the Nunes that ran through Cyborg shows up, the cage will be littered with freckles.

 

[Kwinkle Kwink]

I see Sherdog saying the same stuff they were saying one month before Cyborg fought Holm.

Look, we all owe Holm, but let's be honest she can only win over Nunes at an ish-ish championshish.

That is ISH-xactly what I was thinking!

 

[Konstantin Koltsov]

I like Holly and I'd love to see her win, but I got Nunes by KO in the 2nd.

 

[mmmjojo]

It's hilarious the way the UFC manipulates their rankings. Holly mysteriously moved up and Randamie down two spots this week, plus other fuckery going on.

View attachment 606807

Nothing new. Diaz was suddenly ranked #5 LW right before the first fight with Conor.

That was meant to justify his undeserved LW title shot should he have won. But then Conor lost and Diaz became a "WW".

 

[TITS]

Nothing new. Diaz was suddenly ranked #5 LW right before the first fight with Conor.

That was meant to justify his undeserved LW title shot should he have won. But then Conor lost and Diaz became a "WW".

I though both of their fights were at 170.

 

[bigma]

Define intangibles in this context? I'm five pages in and I can't seem to find where even one intangible is used to describe Holly as it relates to this fight. The dude with the tiny shorts reference was the closest thus far...