Stick a fork in it, folks. Negotiations for a UFC superfight between Ronda Rousey and Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino seem to be done for now.
Unfortunately, the two top-ranked female MMA fighters in the world haven’t been able to agree on a set weight, as the massively-muscled Cyborg has continually states that a 140-pound limit is as low as she can physically go.
That’s not good enough for UFC president Dana White.
White, a firm supporter of Rousey, recently confirmed to MMA Junkie that while he’s still interested in making this fight happen, Cyborg likely won’t be fighting for a title if Rousey meets her at a 140-pound catchweight:
It’s not a title fight. If that’s what [Cyborg] is willing to do is go to 140, let’s let Ronda defend her title a few times and see if Ronda wants to go to 140. If I know Ronda, she probably would anyway, so let’s see what happens. But if [Cyborg] wants to fight for a title and have a title fight, she has to go to 135 pounds.
A fight at 140 would be a fan fight because everybody wants to see it, but it’s not one of those fights that makes sense.
White’s stance effectively kills a superfight between Rousey and Cyborg, although, it remains to be seen if the Brazilian will attempt to cut down to the 135-pound bantamweight limit.
It may be possible, as White previously told TATAME that famed MMA nutritionist Mike Dolce could possibly get Cyborg to trim the 10 pounds.
For her part, Cyborg and her trainer, Tito Ortiz, don’t seem to like this turn of events.
Taking to Instagram in response to White’s claims (via UFC Tonight) that Cyborg wanted “nothing” to do with Rousey, the former Strikeforce featherweight queen called her rival a “bitch,” challenging her to “step up” to 140 pounds.
Notably, Ortiz has also criticized Rousey on The MMA Hour (via MMA Fighting) for buying into her own hype, opining that the UFC women’s champion “hasn’t proven anything” yet.
White’s response to Ortiz was explosive to say the least, as the UFC president slammed his former light heavyweight champion (via MMA Weekly), stating that Rousey’s early MMA career “smokes” Ortiz’s own achievements by comparison.
McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and FightFans Radio writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld and PC World. Talk with him on Twitter.
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