Prediction for the fight Holly Holm vs Kathleen Vieira

Women who perform in mixed martial arts rarely write their names into the history of this sport, and even more so they cannot be remembered for a long time by fans. However, Holly Holm managed not only to make an excellent career for herself, but will forever remain in the memory of people as the first girl who managed to demolish Ronda Rousey herself from the throne.

Many years have passed since then, but the "Preacher's Daughter" continues to hold high positions in the ratings, and on May 22, she, along with Kathleen Viyera, will head the UFC Fight Night 206 tournament. The ladies will represent different styles in the octagon, which doubles the interest to this confrontation. And more importantly, the winner may well count on a title chance in the future.

• Holly Holm vs Kathleen Vieira;
• Holly Holm;
• Kathleen Vieira;
• Comparative analysis;
• Game Totals Prediction.

Holly Holm vs Kathleen Vieira

Holly Holm

For Holly, martial arts on a grand scale began with boxing. She was the world champion in 3 different weight categories, defended all these titles 16 times in a row, owned the WBF, WBAN, WBC, NABF belts, as well as WIBA and IFBA. In addition, she had several kickboxing fights. She has numerous awards and titles of "Fighter of the Year", but Holm gained the main fame by moving to mixed martial arts.

Here she managed to take the Legacy FC title, and then, with a stunning knockout, the best league in the world - UFC. Later, having lost the belt, Holly went through fights with the entire elite and the tops of the lightest and featherweight divisions, where she tried to defeat the champions twice more, but she did not succeed.

Strengths

A distinctive feature of Holm from her colleagues is the placement of accents on the preferred attack zones. More than half of everything that she throws out is aimed at drying her legs and body, and then, having lure her opponent, the ex-champion begins to switch to her head, thus opening the way to unprotected targets.

Movement is another hallmark of Holly. She not only avoids the hitting hand of her opponents, but also clearly cuts corners, uses dives and perfectly feels the distance, due to which she not only reduces the damage received, but also makes her opponents miss.

Over the past 5 years, The Preacher's Daughter has minimized fights that ended ahead of schedule. She easily works out three rounds at good speeds, and makes a big bet on the technical analysis of her counterpart, from which the meetings are delayed. And even if all this leads to defeat, it is very difficult for Holm to finish, in her entire career only two athletes have managed to do this.

Weaknesses

Holly is one of the oldest UFC athletes, and not only in the women's divisions. And this, whatever one may say, affects the quality of her performances. Sports aggression, total punching tonnage, efficiency - every point sags from fight to fight.

Unsuccessful attempts to win the belt again, the status of an eternal contender, and the apparent fading of the former champion as a top (she keeps afloat only because of the low level of competition), indicates that Holm is no longer able to perform at the level where she was before. - The new generation of fighters looks much better.

The current form and readiness of the fighter

The forty-year-old athlete has not competed in the octagon since October 2020. Her last two fights ended with victories over Raquel Pennington and Irene Aldana, before Holly lost to Amanda Nunes and defeated Megan Anderson. In this case, it makes no sense to talk about any high expectations from the performance. It's good if Holm retains his former condition, but such a protracted downtime, and even the distance of the fight in 5 rounds, can negatively affect the upcoming fight.

Kathleen Vieira

The background of the Brazilian consists of judo, BJJ and wrestling. In the first two types of martial arts, Kathleen managed to reach the level of a black belt, and as for wrestling, the athlete has several titles from national championships at once. Also, she took the belts of MMA organizations such as Mr. Cage and Big Way in their home country.

After moving to the UFC, Vijer's career has had its fair share of moments, but for the most part, she's been able to handle mid-level opposition and thrive in fights against the former tops. To a greater extent, this depended on the ability of opponents to work on the ground floor.

Strengths

What Kathleen is really good at is close combat. She perfectly selects the moment for rapprochement, from where, clinging to the opponent, she performs her signature technique - a hook, after which she easily takes advantageous positions for attacks.

Like any parter player, Viyera doesn’t really think through the plan of action in the standing position - she just goes forward and hits. Punches to the body and any kicks in her performance are very rare. It's about wanting to throw more punches to the head to get closer, and it really works.

It cannot be said that the Brazilian puts everything on winning tricks, not at all. She prefers to win fights on points, but the fact that the Phenomenon has a ton of deadly moves in her arsenal that she pulls off from different positions only adds to her confidence while in a horizontal position.

Weaknesses

Lingering on her feet when the opponent moves away from takedowns and does not clinch, Kathleen begins to miss a lot of punches. For three rolled, she can get a 4 in response, but still continue to advance. Such reckless behavior will definitely lead her to collapse in a fight with a high-class striker.

The current form and readiness of the fighter

Kathleen is 30 years old and has 3 wins and 2 losses in her last 5 fights. Irene Aldana and Yana Kunitskaya found the keys to defeating this athlete, but ex-champion Misha Tate, Sijara Eubanks and Kat Zingano looked more faded. Six months of rest, a full training camp and the prime of life - Viyera will show his maximum in this fight.

Comparative analysis

Starting the comparison with anthropometry, we note that none of the participants will be able to impose their game only because of their size. In fact, with identical height, Holly takes some 2.5 cm in arm span, so judging from this plane, then in muscle mass and other points, the ladies are equal. However, things look completely different once we touch on styles. Hill will definitely look more profitable in the stance, both due to footwork and experience. As before, she will start to work out as the second number, putting Viyera on counterattacks. Taking into account that she willingly goes forward, wanting to get closer, from this you can play out a whole plan for the battle, gradually breaking the face of the opponent and leaving the line of her movement.

But, we are talking about a 25-minute fight, and Holly will definitely not be able to run back all this time without ever being in the grip of a Brazilian. She will definitely push her back to the cage and will pull her to the ground. Holm's takedown defense is good, but only in the center of the octagon, so it is most likely that she will still be under the yoke of Kathleen. Will it be possible to submit the ex-champion? This is unlikely, but to control it on the ground and take points in referee cards is quite a yes. The start of the fight will definitely go to the Preacher's Daughter, but then her success will depend only on whether she can, after such a downtime and being at her "age", maintain concentration all the allotted time.

Holly Holm vs Kathleen Vieira Fight Prediction

Regardless of the odds, and the fans' confidence in Holly's skill, it would be foolish to be 100% certain of her victory. She hasn't fought in a year and a half, her opponent is 10 years younger, and the difference in post-fighting and parterre skills of both makes it impossible to single out a clear favourite. In fact, it will depend entirely on whether Vieira can move Holm, and she has a very good skill set. If not, she will be crushed in the rack, and if so, it may come down to the referee's decision in favour of the Brazilian athlete. This is why the most adequate decision in this case would be to bet on the duration of the encounter, because it will definitely go further than the equator. And if you want to call a winner, Holly Holm is the one to win, but it's going to be 55:45, and the further away it is, the worse for the ex-champion. Install the 1xbet app and place a bet on the favorite!

Prediction: Holly Holm to win/Total over 2.5