Mike Winklejohn is one of the most highly respected coaches in MMA, with his highest profile pupil being former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Holly Holm.
A potential clash between Holm and current Invicta Fighting Championships Featherweight Champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino almost seems inevitable now with both in the UFC Women’s Featherweight Division.
However, before a battle between the two can take place, Winklejohn wants Cyborg to be clean for at least a year.
“I would recommend probably not taking it (a fight with Cyborg) until Cyborg is suspended for a year,” Winkeljohn said on Submission Radio. “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.”
Cyborg was recently on the receiving end of good news from USADA, as the drug testing program has cleared her of any wrongdoing for a December 2016 potential drug test failure, and applied a therapeutic use exemption for the substance in question.
Holm is currently in the midst of appealing a loss to Germaine De Randamie at UFC 208, a loss that cost her the UFC Women’s Featherweight Title and a loss Coach Winklejohn wants her to avenge.
“Oh I absolutely do believe she deserves a rematch,” Winkeljohn said. “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. ”
Winklejohn has coached Holm to the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Title, the Legacy Fighting Championships Women’s Title, plus various titles in boxing and kickboxing.
