This article is part of our UFC Picks series.
After officially landing the UFC Women's Featherweight Championship with a win over Tonya Evinger in July, Cris Cyborg will make her first title defense in what could be the most action-packed women's MMA fight of the year. Standing across from her in the Octagon will be Holly Holm, who is no stranger to being the underdog, or defying the odds under the brightest lights. See if the RotoWire MMA Staff is giving Holm a chance as they pick the pay-per-view portion of Saturday's card.Note: The originally-scheduled bantamweight matchup between Jimmie Rivera and John Lineker was scrapped after Lineker had to withdraw due to a tooth infection. UFC 219 will proceed with 10 scheduled fights.
If you're looking for a fantasy-specific breakdown of these fights on DraftKings, click here for Jon Litterine's UFC 219 preview.
MATCHUP | WEIGHT CLASS | JON | EVAN | JAKE |
Cris Cyborg (-370) vs. Holly Holm (+330) | Women's Featherweight Championship | Cyborg | Cyborg | Cyborg |
Khabib Nurmagomedov (-280) vs. Edson Barboza (+240) | Lightweight | Khabib | Khabib | Khabib |
Cynthia Calvillo (-245) vs. Carla Esparza (+205) | Women's Strawweight | Esparza | Esparza | |
Carlos Condit (-160) vs. Neil Magny (+140) | Welterweight | |||
RECORD | 3-1 | 3-1 | 2-2 | |
OVERALL (since UFC 200) | 58-38 | 53-43 | 61-35 | |
PERCENTAGE | .604 | .552 | .635 |
MATCHUP | WEIGHT CLASS | RICHARD | CHRIS |
Cris Cyborg (-370) vs. Holly Holm (+330) | Women's Featherweight Championship | Cyborg | Cyborg |
Khabib Nurmagomedov (-280) vs. Edson Barboza (+240) | Lightweight | ||
Cynthia Calvillo (-245) vs. Carla Esparza (+205) | Women's Strawweight | Esparza | Esparza |
Carlos Condit (-160) vs. Neil Magny (+140) | Welterweight | ||
RECORD | 2-2 | 2-2 | |
OVERALL (since UFC 200) | 41-26 | 19-17 | |
PERCENTAGE | .612 | .528 |
THE PLAYERS
Jon Litterine: RotoWire lead MMA beat writer and scribe for our weekly DrafKings preview. Lead analyst on the RotoWire MMA Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @JonLitterine.
Evan Dahl: Pens our bi-weekly MMA Barometer column. Follow him on Twitter at @RealEvanDahl.
Jake Letarski: MMA and NCAA Hoops Senior Editor. Sirius XM contributor. Host of the RotoWire MMA Podcast, RotoWire Fantasy Football Podcast and RotoWire DFS Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @JakeSki52.
Richard Mann: Richard is a stats-based analyst that has appeared on ESPN MMA via Fightmetric. He handles event recaps in our Fight Stat Wrap column, and maintains his own, data-driven MMA blog at StrikescoreMMA.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichardAMann.
Chris Olson: Contributor at RotoWire for DFS Baseball, as well as MMA fight recaps. Follow him on Twitter at @RealChrisOlson.
Disagree with these picks? Let your opinion be heard in the comments!