Women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg fended off some early grappling work from Yana Kunitskaya tonight in the co-main event at UFC 222 and then punished the challenger with vicious striking to produce a first round finish.
Round One:
The main event women’s featherweight title fight is underway in Las Vegas.
Front kick to the body from Kunitskaya. Cyborg blasts her with a big punch, but Kunitskaya immediately goes to a takedown attempt and lands it.
Interesting stuff in the early stages of the fight. Cyborg starts to work back to her feet, but Kunitskaya stays clinched up and presses Cyborg against the cage.
Kunitskaya working some knees and doing a good job of showing her strength. She looks for a takedown, but Cyborg stuffs that attempt.
Cyborg finds some space and lands a heavy knee. She’s looking to punish her now and lands a hard punch to the body. Big punches to the head now and Kunitskaya buckles. She tries to transition into a takedown again, but this time Cyborg just brushes her off.
Kunitskaya back on her feet, but there’s a different look in her eyes now. Cyborg blasts her again and it looks like every blow is taking a visible toll on her.
Hard punches land and Kunitskaya falls from a heavy right hand. Cyborg hammers down ruthless ground and pound as Kunitskaya cowers on the mat and that’s it, the referee rushes in and puts an end to the beating to give the champion a TKO victory with 3.25mins of the first round gone.
Credit should go to Kunitskaya here for taking the fight to Cyborg early and giving her some problems on the mat, but on the feet it was like a lion versus a kitten and so the champion emerges with another impressive stoppage victory to add to her highlight reel.
