Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos is apparently on her way out of Zuffa.
If that comes to pass, don’t expect UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey to throw her any going-away parties.
During Tuesday’s UFC 157 media teleconference, Rousey mocked the former Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion, referring to her as “Cryborg,” and said she needs to mention Rousey’s name simply to stay in the limelight.
“I think that she’s just kind of making a lot of noise and trying to get attention because she’s kind of fading to be irrelevant,” Rousey said. “She hasn’t had a recorded win in about two years or something like that, so she needs to have people going on TV and making a big fuss in order for people to remember her name.”
Part of the issue between the two is at which weight Santos and Rousey would meet. Rousey insists Santos must come down to 135 pounds to meet her. Tuesday, Rousey said if Santos doesn’t come down to bantamweight, there are plenty of other women for her to fight.
“I have a lot of options ahead of me,” Rousey said. “I have a lot of girls I can fight. She really doesn’t have any options besides me. So they can go around and make a lot of noise and be ‘Cryborg’ as much as you want, but at some point she’s going to have to come around and take the only fight that’s available to her. And in the meantime, I have plenty of options that are available to me.”
Of course, there’s always the chance that Liz Carmouche wins Rousey’s title at the Honda Center on Feb. 23. Carmouche was asked, if she was to win the title, whether she’d accept a catchweight fight with Santos. Carmouche didn’t have Rousey’s mocking tone, but she agreed with Rousey’s basic premise.
“I absolutely have the same opinion as Ronda has,” Carmouche said. “‘Cyborg’ was the champion of the 145 division, but it’s currently Ronda at 135, so, whoever is champion in that weight division, it’s that weight division. If you do a catchweight, I think it’s, if [the title] is something they really want, then they have to go to that weight division.”
Santos and her manager, Tito Ortiz, have a press conference planned for Friday in Huntington Beach, Calif., in which they say they will have an announcement about Santos’ future plans.