Cris Cyborg shoots down potential Ronda Rousey fight in UFC
For several years, Cris “Cyborg” Justino did everything possible to land a fight with former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey yet the matchup never came together.
Rousey insisted that Cyborg cut down to 135 pounds to face her as the UFC champion despite the Brazilian spending the majority of her career competing in the women’s featherweight division.
Still, Cyborg attempted to make the cut but even getting down to 140-pounds was absolutely devastating on her body. Add to that, Rousey ended up suffering a pair of knockout losses in a row to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes as her career prospects began to dwindle.
In recent months, UFC president Dana White has speculated that Rousey is done with fighting but her head coach Edmond Tarverdyan did a recent interview where he said he’d like to see the former champion return for one more fight — against Cris Cyborg.
It didn’t take long for the reigning UFC women’s featherweight champion to respond as she quickly shot down the idea that facing Rousey at this point would hold anywhere near the same relevance as a super fight between them would have done a couple of years ago.
“If Ronda is going to return for only one more fight I think it should be against Miesha Tate,” Cyborg wrote on her website on Tuesday. “When I wanted to fight her it was because she was at the top of her game and she had all of the confidence in the world. She had not been KO’d twice in a row and some people were actually saying she could beat Floyd Mayweather in a fight.
“I tried to make this fight so bad I almost killed myself making weight! I wanted the challenge so bad I almost killed myself trying to make the lowest weight possible just to give this fight to the fans, and she made every excuse for it not to happen. Both of us are now at different chapters in our careers and for me that chapter is finished.”
The only way Cyborg would be interested in taking on Rousey would be in a professional wrestling ring as she has teased lately that she’s interested in pursuing a future in the WWE.
Rousey has already appeared on WWE programming and executive Paul “Triple H” Levesque expressed interest in signing her to the organization immediately if she was interested in wrestling.
“If Ronda is wanting to make the fight for the fans, I would still be willing to give them it, but I think it would be better to take place inside the WWE ring,” Cyborg said.
“For her it gets her one step closer to Hollywood and for me it would be another exciting challenge and a chance to test my athletic ability. I also think this would be the best platform for Edmond as he is not nothing but a joke of a coach!”
