Forever linked with a heated grudge fight with former bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey – fellow UFC alum, Cris Cyborg has hit out at the Riverside native for shedding light on her history of concussion injuries during her Octagon tenure, as well as making several excuses for her 2015 loss to Holly Holm.
Cyborg, a former Strikeforce, Invicta FC, and UFC featherweight champion, currently holds the undisputed featherweight crown under the Bellator MMA banner, fresh from an October knockout win over common-foe, Cat Zingano.
As for Rousey, the inaugural UFC bantamweight champion has been forever linked with a return to the Octagon since her pair of consecutive knockout losses to the above-mentioned, Holm, and former two-weight champion, Amanda Nunes.
However, ruling out a return to the sport, Rousey, who also featured under the professional wrestling banner, WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), revealed earlier this week that she has been dealing with a series of concussions during her combat sports career – as well as claiming she was concussed before entering her fight with Holm in Australia.
Cris Cyborg hits out at Ronda Rousey
Reacting to forever-nemesis, Rousey’s comments, Cris Cyborg mocked the former’s excuses for her losses, before claiming she was suffering from the neurodegenerative disease, CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).
“Poor girl, still suffering from CTE,” Cris Cyborg posted on her official X account in response to Ronda Rousey’s claims. “I hope she finally got a good mouth guard.”
Revealing she fell down stairs ahead of her fight with Holm, which resulted in a concussion, Rousey also claimed her mouth guard for the 2015 title fight was ill-fitting, before shedding light on a brutal weight cut for the bout.
“My first loss – like, my mouthguard was bad,” Ronda Rousey explained during an interview with Valeria Livopetsky. “I literally came into that fight [with Holly Holm] concussed from slipping down some stairs already, you know, after all of these years of concussions. And then I had an absolutely terrible weight cut. Which, you know, that means you have less fluid in your brain to cut to protect it.”
“And I was out on my feet for the entire fight,” Ronda Rousey said. “I was trying to make it look like I wasn’t hurt, but I wasn’t there, cognitively. I couldn’t think as fast, I couldn’t judge distance, and just from that one fight, everybody thought, ‘Oh, she’s just a fraud’. And I know like, I’m the greatest fighter that has ever lived.”
Who would’ve won in a hypothetical fight: Cris Cyborg or Ronda Rousey?