UFC 222: Who Is Yana Kunitskaya And Why Is She Fighting For Gold?

She is a former champion and has an incredibly long name, but who exactly is Yana Kunitskaya?

The 28-year-old from Russia enters Saturday night’s UFC 222 main event with reigning female featherweight champion Cris Cyborg as a huge underdog. But that suits her just fine.

A member of the Jackson-Wink MMA Academy, Kunitskaya (10-3) has scored eight finishes among her 10 career wins, with seven of them coming by way of knockout. That might pale in comparison to Cyborg’s resume, but she isn’t doubting herself one bit.

“Sure, she is a great fighter, she’s very strong,” Kunitskaya said of Cyborg. “Probably the best girl in history. But, like Holly Holm showed, everyone’s beatable.”

Kunitskaya was part of the training camp for Holm as she prepared to meet Cyborg at the end of 2017. The two have trained alongside each other in New Mexico over the past few months in preparation for a second meeting with the Brazilian.

“We saw her strong sides and her weak sides,” she said. “I have this chance and on this level of fights, everything’s possible.”

Back in 2009, Kunitskaya made her MMA debut in Poland, scoring a first round TKO over Magdalena Jarecka. She added a 34-second finish of veteran Cindy Dandois a year later, winning eight of her first nine career fights.

In 2016, she fought Tonya Evinger – who also battled Cyborg last year – for the Invicta FC bantamweight title. After originally being declared the winner via submission, the result was overturned and a rematch ordered in 2017. Kunitskaya lost that, but rebounded last August with a win over Raquel Pa’aluhi to win the title once more.

Along with her gold in Invicta FC, Kunitskaya is a former champion in taekwondo and Muay Thai in her native home of Russia.

This, though, will be her biggest test to date and the best chance to showcase her skills to the MMA world live on pay-per-view from Las Vegas.