GLENDALE, Calif. — Ronda Rousey has visualized most of her MMA career up to this point. She’s also visualized the end of it — and it involves hated rival Cris Cyborg.
“I have this idea in my mind that my final fight would be just beating the crap out of Cris Cyborg and then when [UFC president] Dana [White] puts the belt on me the last time, I can take it off and hand it back to him,” Rousey said Thursday at a media day at Glendale Fighting Club.
Rousey, the UFC women’s bantamweight champion, has gone back and forth with Cyborg for years at this point, talking trash. Rousey is the best in the world at 135 pounds; Cyborg is tops at 145, holding the Invicta FC women’s featherweight title. The issue has been whether or not Cyborg can get down to 135 to fight Rousey. The UFC has no 145-pound division.
Cyborg, whose real name is Cristiane Justino, plans on making the attempt to drop, but she has said that before. Rousey thinks she’d be able to do it and always brings up Cyborg’s past drug-test failure as evidence. “Rowdy” said she wants the fight, but the ball is in Cyborg’s court. She won’t go up to 140 for a catchweight, which is what Cyborg has proposed most recently. The UFC isn’t interested in that scenario, either.
“I hope so,” Rousey said of the fight happening. “I really do. But it’s entirely up to her. I’m not gonna go chasing her around. She’s not entitled to have me chase her around. She’s the fraud that got defamed. And if you can make 145 pumped full of steroids, you can get off of it and drop.”
Rousey, 28, first will have to deal with Bethe Correia in the main event of UFC 190 on Aug. 1 in Rio de Janeiro. But after Correia, the potential opponents are slim — and the Brazilian’s viability as a challenger is tenuous at best. Rousey is more than a 15-to-1 favorite.
After Correia, Miesha Tate could become No. 1 contender with a win over Jessica Eye at UFC on FOX 16 on July 25 in Chicago, but she has already lost to Rousey twice before. Eye would at least be a fresh face and maybe Holly Holm, the former multi-time championship kickboxer will get there in due time. But there are very few real challenges for Rousey outside of Cyborg.
Rousey (11-0) still feels like there are more opponents out there for her. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t be doing this anymore.
“I guess the day that I really feel like I run out is the day I’ll be done,” Rousey said. “Right now, they’re lining up around the block. When the day comes when I feel like I’ve done all I could do and the women’s strawweight division is being so successful and competitive is one of the most encouraging thing that’s happened. That division has nothing to do with me and it’s thriving. Once I feel like women’s MMA is really self-sustaining and something I can see lasting for decades without me, then I’ll be able step away. Everyone who says ‘you’re running out of opponents,’ you better hope I don’t run out. Because then I’ll be done.”
Rousey has a burgeoning career in movies and WWE loves her. There is no shortage of things she can do with her life. Plus, she is already a multi-millionaire. She said recently that if it were all about the money she would have already hung up the gloves.
And that is Rousey’s leverage against Cyborg, a feared, dominant fighter like Rousey without anyone who is even close in her division. Cyborg and the UFC probably need that fight more than Rousey does. And Rousey knows it.
“If she doesn’t step up, I can move on and do other things in my life,” Rousey said. “She’s the one that’s gonna fall into obscurity without me.”