Ronda Rousey is being rumored to return to the UFC octagon for UFC 200 in July 2016 to face off against new bantamweight champion Holly Holm. Rousey’s shocking knockout loss to Holm turned the UFC upside down, and likely ruined a highly-anticipated super fight.
Leading up to the Holm fight, there was more chatter about whether or not Rousey would ever face Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino, a 145-pound champion for Invicta. The pair have a long history of ill will, and now it’s Cyborg who believes she has the upper hand in future negotiations.
“I hope [a fight with Rousey happens] for the fans. But if she was running from me before the loss, imagine how much faster she will be running from me now,” Cyborg told Yahoo. “I'm not chasing her anymore. After all, didn't she say ‘You come to the champ?’ I have been a world champion for 10 years!”
She also thinks Rousey’s loss gives her leverage regarding what weight to fight at. Rousey was the champion at 135 pounds, and at one point Cyborg was training to gradually get to that weight. Now, Cyborg is praising Holm as a “different” kind of fighter more willing to meet at a fair weight.
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“I respect Holly because Holly is different than Ronda. Holly is a true fighter that wants to fight the best and because of that I believe she would fight me at 145 or meet me at 140.”
This talk likely means fight fans will never see Rousey and Cyborg share the octagon. Even with a loss on her record, Rousey is still one of UFC’s top stars, and is easily the most recognized women’s MMA fighter in the world. She’d remain the A-side of a super fight, and therefore dictate the terms.
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Cyborg’s rhetoric also ignores her history with performance enhancing drugs, a history Rousey rarely fails to mention. UFC president Dana White has long been hesitant to discuss Cyborg because of her association to steroids, and bad mouthing his biggest star isn’t the best way to keep an open dialogue running.
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