As her one year suspension comes to an end, Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos, the fallen star of women’s MMA, is becoming increasingly vocal about her desires to get back into the cage and face reigning Strikeforce bantamweight champ, Ronda Rousey.
In an interview with Nocaute Transamerica, Santos talked of her desire to fight Rousey:
“I also want [the Rousey] fight, I’m very pumped. It’s gonna be very exciting, all the fans want to see it. I believe it will happen. I think Dana will make everything it’s possible, ‘cause this is the fight that everybody wants to see.”
Santos was the reigning Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion until she was stripped of that title in December last year after she tested positive for banned steroid stanozolol.
Until that point, she was the undisputed queen of women’s MMA, but during the past year of her suspension, Rousey—with her charismatic media swagger and unbeatable arm-bar—has emphatically snatched that crown.
Having cleaned out the bantamweight division, Rousey has turned her attention to Cyborg and has pulled no punches in her trash talk trying to set-up the fight.
In recent interviews she has called the Brazilian “Guyborg” and “Cyroid” (H/T Bloody Elbow) and has said that all her accomplishments are illegitimate due to a career of steroid abuse
Rousey has also insisted that the only way she’d fight the former champ is if she cuts down to 135 lbs to meet her at her weight class.
“If she wants to fight me than she is going to have to find a way to come down to 135,” said Rousey back in August.
“We’ll see how she does in a fair fight for once in her life. She has a history of coming in overweight to fights and I wouldn’t doubt that if we agreed to some sort of catchweight at 140, she’d show up at 145 anyway and be like ‘ah whatever, fight or not.”
However, Santos reiterated that it is not feasible for her to drop to 135 lbs, adding, “To make this fight happen, I could go down to 140 pounds, because I already made that. I do what I can. I said that I would fight her at my weight class or at 140lbs.”
Cyborg also got in her own jab at Rousey, saying, “I think she is a great athlete. I don’t believe she is a mixed martial artist, she still has weaknesses.”
Those comments that are sure to rile Rousey further and continue the war of words between the two fighters.
Santos’ suspension is due to end in December.
Khuram Aziz is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report, follow him on Twitter: Follow @khurramaziz1981
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com