UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey still welcomes a superfight with Invicta FC women’s featherweight titleholder Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino—she’s just waiting for a contract to sign.
Speaking to the Brazilian media in Rio de Janeiro yesterday, the Rowdy one continued to criticize her most hated adversary for just about every reason imaginable, per Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting.
My pace, nobody can overwhelm me. And the way that she is on the ground, it’s absolute horrendous. And her distance is absolute horrendous. The only thing that she has is pace and power, and I have pace, precision and power. … But she’s still outside the organization, going outside the country. I’m sure she’s trying to dope as long as possible and then come into the UFC. But it doesn’t matter. I grew up fighting in judo and I knew there were people out there doping, but I never used that as an excuse to do it. I just wanted to beat them despite of it.
Rousey also took shots at Cyborg for her striking and grappling technique, essentially stating that she has none, only winning fights based on a high-octane pace and brute strength.
While Justino is unbeaten since her first professional MMA contest in May 2005, her 13-fight unbeaten streak is tainted by a no-contest from December 2011.
Despite scoring a ridiculously quick knockout over Hiroko Yamanaka at Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal, the Brazilian slugger had the result overturned by the California State Athletic Commission after failing a post-fight drug test, per MMA Junkie.
Justino tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol, and as a result, she served a nine-month suspension and paid a $2,500 fine, as MMA Junkie reported.
The 29-year-old knockout artist has since rebounded inside the cage with back-to-back TKO victories over Fiona Muxlow and Marloes Coenen, capturing Invicta championship gold in the latter fight.
Justino also made an unsuccessful return to kickboxing in March, losing a brutally one-sided decision to Jorina Baars at Lion Fight 14.
Rousey, one of the most prominent UFC stars, still boasts a perfect 10-0 record as a professional mixed martial artist and has faced little opposition inside the cage up to this point.
Her last bout was a 16-second mauling of Alexis Davis at UFC 175 on July 15. While the Rowdy one doesn‘t have a fight on the docket yet, she is angling for a January 3 return, per Erik Fontanez of MMA Weekly.
Will 2015 finally bring about Rousey vs. Justino in what would easily be the most anticipated women’s title fight of all time?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
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