The UFC is always in need of women’s bantamweights, and it’s getting one in Nora Cornolle, set to make her debut at home in France at UFC Paris this Saturday. The card is headlined by heavyweights Ciryl Gane and Serghei Spivac; Cornolle takes on Zarah Fairn in a 140lb catchweight bout.
Nora Cornolle
Standing at five-foot-seven
Fighting at 135 lbs (bantamweight)
34-years-old
Fighting out of Épinay-sur-Seine, France
Training out of Free Fight Academy
A pro record of 6-1
5 KO/TKOs, 1 Submission
How Cornolle will fare in the UFC:
It’s good to get Cornolle in the UFC considering she’s already 34, so no need to be wasting more time regionally. Cornolle got a late start in MMA because she was competing at a high level in Muay Thai and Kickboxing. She’s a gold medalist in the European Muay Thai championships.
Her only loss came in her first pro fight against Jacqueline Cavalcanti who is also making her UFC debut as part of this card. That fight was up at featherweight while Cornolle is now at bantamweight.
My concerns with Cornolle are her takedown defense and her striking defense. I haven’t seen her takedown defense be a huge problem but she makes a lot of mistakes that will hurt her at a higher level. She tends to give up her back but she’s been able to scramble and get out of bad positions. It should be noted that Cornolle hasn’t beaten anyone notable. Her striking defense does lack especially in space. Her head movement is stationary. She’s willing to take one to dish some out as she’s usually the more dangerous striker.
Where Cornolle excels is in the clinch. No matter if it’s her pressing girls against the cage or if her back is against the cage it’s her as the threat. What stands out is her knees and elbows. She does an excellent job of framing off and landing those short elbows. She can push on the face and sneak in slicing elbows. Also being good at throwing those knees up top showing nice position awareness, flexibility, and accuracy. A nasty striker on the outside who knows how to carve an opponent up.
I do like the signing because she’s capable of exciting fights and finishing fights. I don’t believe she has the skill set to be a ranked fighter. Cornolle isn’t well-rounded enough to be a threat as she’s just too limited.
How she matches up against Edwards:
Although Edwards has been underwhelming in the UFC she’s actually on a three-fight win streak. Saying that, many don’t think she won her last fight. She’s missed weight her last two fights so she’s clearly not taking it as seriously. She’s a good boxer but most of her game is volume even though most strikes don’t land. She’s been fighting girls who barely throw anything and that let her dictate the pace. Edwards likes to clinch up a lot but that would be a mistake against Cornolle. I’m ever so slightly picking Cornolle. In a fight I believe will be on the feet and in the clinch I favor the more active and better striker in Cornolle. The luck of Edwards has to run out eventually.
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