Author: Matt Fitzgerald

Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino Says She Wants to Fight Ronda Rousey at UFC 205

If Ronda Rousey makes her return at UFC 205 on Nov. 12, Cris “Cyborg” Justino looms as a formidable and willing opponent.
Justino posted comments on social media Friday regarding a prospective bout with Rousey, per ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto:

I’m not tr…

If Ronda Rousey makes her return at UFC 205 on Nov. 12, Cris “Cyborg” Justino looms as a formidable and willing opponent.

Justino posted comments on social media Friday regarding a prospective bout with Rousey, per ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto:

I’m not trying to inspire you to suddenly become a better person, or become anything you’re not. But there was a time in your life when you told people you wanted to fight me. Maybe you didn’t quite understand the way the world worked then, but you also didn’t care what anyone thought. 

I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that you don’t need to be the champ to fight me.

The media made you out to be the greatest female fighter of all time, and that is beautiful, because now everyone knows the real reason why you avoided a fight against Cris Cyborg. P4P #1 in the World for WMMA according to ESPN.

Cyborg proclaims herself to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in women’s mixed martial arts. Such a gaudy label is at least up for debate following Rousey’s loss to Holly Holm and prolonged absence from the Octagon.

With a 16-1 professional MMA record and the Invicta FC Featherweight Championship in tow, Justino has proved herself time and again. She recently lived up to the hype with a first-round knockout over Leslie Smith at UFC 198, her debut with the company.

The only blemish on Rousey’s record is the defeat to Holm at UFC 193.

A fight between Justino and Rousey is a clash UFC fans would love to see. However, Justino and Rousey have been in different weight classes in the past, and the UFC and Rousey haven’t been willing to book a catchweight fight, per Okamoto.

It’s hard to envision a more glorious UFC return for Rousey than by silencing Justino with a rousing triumph over her vocal critic.

On the other hand, since Justino, who typically fights at 145 pounds, is bigger than the foes Rousey has faced before, no matter what the weight for their potential fight would be, Rowdy might be hard-pressed to handle Cyborg’s physicality—especially following a lengthy hiatus from competition.

UFC President Dana White has said Rousey will get a title shot at 135 pounds once she returns, per Okamoto. Whether that’ll be against Justino remains unclear.

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Daniel Cormier vs Anderson Silva Announced for UFC 200: Latest Details, Reaction

Anderson Silva will replace Jon Jones at UFC 200 on Saturday and fight Daniel Cormier in a non-title bout.
Brazil’s Globo reported the news Thursday (via FloSports’ Jeremy Botter). TMZ confirmed the news.
Silva took to Instagra…

Anderson Silva will replace Jon Jones at UFC 200 on Saturday and fight Daniel Cormier in a non-title bout.

Brazil’s Globo reported the news Thursday (via FloSports’ Jeremy Botter). TMZ confirmed the news.

Silva took to Instagram to confirm the fight:

The UFC had to scramble in the aftermath of Jones being flagged by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for a June 16 drug test, per MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani.

“This is devastating to Daniel Cormier mentally and physically—he just went through a camp—and financially,” UFC President Dana White said, per MMA Weekly’s Ken Pishna and Jeff Cain. “This pay-per-view is trending to be massive, and he shares in that revenue, so it’s devastating to him in every way it could possibly be.”

It would’ve been an epic showdown between Cormier and Jones, because the former lost to the latter by unanimous decision at UFC 182 in January 2015. That defeat remains the only blemish on Cormier’s professional MMA record (17-1).

Cormier, the current light heavyweight champion, was supposed to battle Jones for the belt. Instead, the stakes will be lowered for the Silva fight, but it nevertheless will add to an intriguing card for the upcoming showcase at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Silva is a former UFC middleweight champion who boasts a career MMA record of 33-6 with one no-contest. The Spider has served a suspension for positive drug tests as well but did fight as recently as February, when he lost to Michael Bisping.

Due to his striking precision and vicious ambidextrous approach, Silva is a formidable foe for Cormier despite being 41 years old and past his UFC apex. Cormier has a wrestling background and will have his hands full Saturday.

In addition to the intriguing Cormier-Silva showdown, women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate will take on Amanda Nunes in the preceding fight. The main event will mark Brock Lesnar‘s return to the Octagon for the first time since December 2011 as he fights Mark Hunt.

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Brock Lesnar Comments on Steroid Allegations, WWE and More

Brock Lesnar is slated to return to the Octagon at UFC 200 in a July 9 bout against Mark Hunt, but he has been faced with steroid allegations of late from Hunt himself. 
Lesnar did his best to downplay the situation Thursday, saying in response to…

Brock Lesnar is slated to return to the Octagon at UFC 200 in a July 9 bout against Mark Hunt, but he has been faced with steroid allegations of late from Hunt himself. 

Lesnar did his best to downplay the situation Thursday, saying in response to Hunt, per MMAFighting.com’s Mark Raimondi, “I’ve been dealing with that my entire life. … I’m a white boy, and I’m jacked—deal with it.”

Fighters are typically required to give the UFC four months’ notice before returning to competition so they can be regularly tested for drugs. Lesnar received an exemption from the testing period, which has driven the steroid speculation.

“I think he’s juiced to the gills—and I still think I’m going to knock him out,” said Hunt in his initial comments about Lesnar, per an interview with Fox Sports Australia. Hunt also said, “I don’t think anyone should be exempt from testing. If they’re trying to clean the sport up—mixed martial arts—this is a bad way to do it. I don’t care who you are. It’s ridiculous.”

The 38-year-old Lesnar also downplayed how returning to the UFC would impact his status in professional wrestling as part of WWE, per Raimondi:

This isn’t about my fans. This is about me living my life, being the person that I want to be. Granted, without the fans and everything, none of us would be able to do this. I get that. But I don’t sit up at night wondering is my drawing power gonna be hurt or are my WWE fans gonna tune in and watch me do this. I don’t give two s–ts about that. This is about me. I want to get in there and be an athlete again. That’s what this is about.

Those remarks about fans and the outside interest in his UFC fight stemmed in part from some of what WWE chief brand officer Stephanie McMahon said in an interview with Business Insider‘s Lara O’Reilly this week:

We are not supporting the fight necessarily but, again, it’s not a competitor to us and the more that our superstars, that’s how we refer to our talent, the more they do outside of WWE, the more awareness it generates and the broader the audience can be that is then brought back into our properties. So we recognize the value of that.

Lesnar expressed that he didn’t care about how a potential loss to Hunt at UFC 200 would impact his future WWE outlook, per Raimondi.

There’s no denying Lesnar’s star power has translated from WWE to the UFC in the past and vice versa. His presence and victory over Frank Mir at UFC 100 in 2009 drummed up plenty of interest and set the company’s all-time pay-per-view record.

Lesnar has a 5-3 mixed martial arts record and at one point held and defended the UFC heavyweight championship belt. He lost his most recent two UFC appearances, with the last coming in December 2011 on a TKO loss at UFC 141 to Alistair Overeem.

Given how much time he’s been away from mixed martial arts, it’d take an extraordinary effort for Lesnar to have a triumphant UFC comeback at T-Mobile Arena in Nevada.

Hunt is exacerbating the negative attention on Lesnar as his impending opponent, but it may work to Lesnar’s advantage if he can use it as motivational fuel. If any of the external noise is rattling Lesnar, he isn’t showing it—and he’s commendably dealt with the scrutiny and the spotlight before as a UFC champion.

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Arrest Made by Police in Relation to Jordan Parsons’ Hit-and-Run Death

On Saturday, Delray Beach, Florida, police arrested a man connected to last Sunday’s hit-and-run that led to the death of MMA fighter Jordan Parsons.
ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto reported Dennis Wright, 28, is facing multiple charges after the Delray Beach…

On Saturday, Delray Beach, Florida, police arrested a man connected to last Sunday’s hit-and-run that led to the death of MMA fighter Jordan Parsons.

ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto reported Dennis Wright, 28, is facing multiple charges after the Delray Beach Police Department brought him in on an anonymous tip, which marked the conclusion of a six-day investigation.

Parsons died Wednesday at the age of 25 because of injuries he suffered from the hit-and-run. He was slated to participate in May 14’s Bellator MMA event, per Okamoto.

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Miesha Tate Thinks Ronda Rousey Will Have 1 or 2 UFC Fights Before Retirement

UFC star Miesha Tate reiterated her belief that Ronda Rousey’s MMA career won’t last much longer, saying “Rowdy” has only one or two fights remaining.   
Tate spoke to ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto about Rousey’s future outlook in a report release…

UFC star Miesha Tate reiterated her belief that Ronda Rousey‘s MMA career won’t last much longer, saying “Rowdy” has only one or two fights remaining.   

Tate spoke to ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto about Rousey’s future outlook in a report released on Wednesday:

I think one [more fight] if she loses and two if she wins her comeback. That’s the most she’ll do. I just think her mind is elsewhere. I’ve heard her talk about wanting to be a mom — that’s not something that has crossed my mind. That’s a big change in career path. Maybe she was already looking to retire. She was already talking about it, saying, “I want to retire undefeated.” She was talking about it before she lost to Holly [Holm in November]. I think that was already in the works. Now, she has lost to Holly and is taking a year off. That’s the other thing — any time I lost a fight, I wanted to get back in there immediately. When I lost to Cat Zingano [April 2013], I freaked out. I literally freaked out. I was calling [UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby] every two seconds saying, “Get me in there now.” They were actually putting together a fight against Liz Carmouche in Seattle three months later because I was losing it that much. And here’s Ronda with a completely different mind-set, willing to sit an entire year. Makes me think where her objectives are.

These remarks about Rousey are a bit more sensitive than the ones Tate shared with SI Now’s Maggie Gray, when she criticized Rousey for having suicidal thoughts after her loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193.

“I thought that was a big sign of mental weakness, to be honest,” said Tate.

To be fair to Rousey, she had never dealt with defeat before as a UFC fighter until November and had been prominent in the public spotlight, building her brand on a perfect record. That all went away when Holm knocked her out.

The glory Holm could bask in after her breakthrough triumph over Rousey was short-lived. She proceeded to take on the challenge of a short turnaround, fighting Tate at UFC 196 earlier this month. Holm lost via submission by way of a rear-naked choke in the fifth round.

With appearances in multiple Hollywood films under her belt and the interest Tate mentioned of being a mother, Rousey does have other things going on outside of the Octagon.  

Even if she were never to fight again, she has already proved to be a pioneering UFC force as the first women’s bantamweight champion. Given the competitive fire Rousey has demonstrated in the past, though, she seems bound to return for at least one more bout.

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Dana White Says He Feels ‘Bad’ for Holly Holm After Miesha Tate Loss

UFC President Dana White expressed sympathy on Tuesday for Holly Holm after she lost her bantamweight title belt at UFC 196 to Miesha Tate, who defeated her this past Saturday in Las Vegas.
In an interview with ESPN’s Russillo & Kanell radio show, …

UFC President Dana White expressed sympathy on Tuesday for Holly Holm after she lost her bantamweight title belt at UFC 196 to Miesha Tate, who defeated her this past Saturday in Las Vegas.

In an interview with ESPN’s Russillo & Kanell radio show, White implied Holm didn’t and still may not comprehend what was at stake in her bout with Tate (h/t ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto):  

I feel bad for Holly. I don’t know if Holly really knows what she lost. I think she has so much faith in the people that surround her, she feels like, ‘Well, they got me this far.’ We had this meeting, and Holly wasn’t even in it. Holly, that’s your life. You should be in that meeting. Don’t leave it to these people. Anyway, Holly made a lot of money. She accomplished great things, she beat Ronda Rousey. But it could have been so much bigger for her, and the sad part is, I don’t think she even knows it.

Saturday’s fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena was stopped at three minutes, 30 seconds in the fifth round when Tate successfully performed a rear-naked choke on Holm and won by way of technical submission.

Perhaps Holm was bound to have a letdown after being the first woman to defeat the mighty Ronda Rousey. Now that Holm has lost, a prospective rematch with Rousey loses a lot of its luster.

White’s own business is actually hindered as a result of Holm’s loss, which could well be some of the motivation behind his public comments. He cast blame on Holm’s manager, Lenny Fresquez, saying, “The sad part about that is, listen, he’s an old boxing guy who thinks he’s smart, and he’s not.”

Holm didn’t have a lot of time to recover since November’s epic triumph over Rousey, but Fresquez insisted his client had the final call on accepting the challenge of a Tate fight.

“It was a team decision, and Holly is the boss. She wanted to fight, and she got her wish. I think she’ll fight Miesha or Ronda next,” said Fresquez to Okamoto. He added, “Even with the title, a fight between Miesha and Rousey doesn’t have the glamour a fight with Holly and Ronda does. Yeah, Holly lost. She made a mistake, but she’ll learn from it. Everyone saw she’s a warrior.”

The loss to Tate was Holm’s first of her professional mixed martial arts career, dropping her to 10-1 overall.

The 34-year-old may have worn herself too thin to have a prompt rematch with Tate or to take on a vengeful Rousey. Unfortunately for Holm, it appears as though she will have to watch from the sidelines as Tate and Rousey gear up for a probable championship bout.

Rousey is still the biggest female star in the UFC, but the question as to who’s best among her, Holm and Tate is muddled at the moment.

It will be interesting to see how that impacts viewership, but Rousey’s highly anticipated return to the Octagon ought to draw plenty of eyes as she tries to bounce back from an unprecedented defeat.

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