“Oh I absolutely do believe she deserves a rematch. I think most of the media out there, most of the writers that know a little bit about MMA thought Holly won the fight even without the point deduction. So I think it was below the top that way. With a point deduction, of course she would have won the fight. So I think it does validate the want for a rematch, there’s no doubt about it. I mean, it’s a tough one because I know Dana really wants to get Cyborg back in there, but here’s the deal with Cyborg – she keeps getting busted for illegal substances. I think she needs to stay clean for a year before she gets back in there and I think Holly needs to fight Germaine first.”
In a new interview with Submission Radio, Holly Holm’s longtime coach Mike Winklejohn expressed his opinions about last weekend’s main event. He also couldn’t help himself when it came to Cris Cyborg, who by the way has been proven innocent in her recent case with USADA, by throwing her under the bus so his fighter can get a rematch.
UFC President Dana White stated last week on ESPN that Cris will likely face the winner of the UFC 208 main event, which happened to not be Holly Holm, due to her controversial decision loss.
Here’s the rest of Holly’s coach’s statement:
“Well you know, things are obvious,” Winkeljohn continued when pressed as to why he believes Cyborg should sit out for a year. “And people are always worried about hurting people’s feelings, but if you look at her over her career, her body did change as time went on. There’s a reason why it changed. That’s it. It’s black and white. Let’s not lie about it, let’s not be politically correct. It’s not about hurting feelings. So now it’s not just that they’re on things and they get the fight time, but density has changed, structures have changed of your body, bone structure has changed. These things are effected by cheating and we can’t go back, but at least let’s go with keeping things clean for a year so at least the muscles are not getting enhanced as such. I think it’s only fair. It’s simple and I’m sick and tired of worrying about hurting people’s feelings.”
“I would recommend probably not taking it until Cyborg is suspended for a year,” Winkeljohn said of a Cyborg/Holm fight, “because you never know what you’re going to get and you never know behind the scenes who’s getting tested and who’s not. Holly’s the number one tested person in the whole UFC. They knock on her door in the morning – I think she’s been tested, I want to say off the top of my head 17 times now in the last year and a half. Why? Why were they looking for her? Probably because they weren’t happy that she knocked out Ronda. But with that being said, people need to be clean to make people fight on a fair level playing field, and I think before Holly were to fight Cyborg she needs to do that.”
“I absolutely think Germaine can pull off the upset – If it’s an upset. Cris is there, she’s there to get hit, she’s there to get hit down the middle. She throws bombs, she comes out hard, there is no doubt about it, but as of late she’s been fighting girls that are smaller than her. Now she’s going to be fighting a girl with skills that has been around the fight game for quite a long time, that’s a bigger girl – and Germaine can fight. She’s been around a long time, she can survive and come back and she hits very hard herself. So that’s kind of a tossup at the moment.”
