Ronda Rousey has a lot on her mind these days–UFC 157, Liz Carmouche, being the first women’s champion in UFC history–but one thing she’s not worried about is a potential fight with former Strikeforce champion, Cris “Cyborg” Santos.
The two fighters have been intertwined together for a big part of the last year as Rousey made her meteoric rise up the women’s ranks and eventually became champion. They also began sparring in a verbal chess match through social media and interviews about a potential fight with each other.
Unfortunately, as of now, it appears that fight won’t be happening any time soon—if ever.
Cris “Cyborg” Santos, who sat out all of 2012 after testing positive for banned substances in her last fight with Strikeforce, has stated adamantly that she cannot make the cut from 145 pounds to 135 pounds, thus eliminating her from joining the UFC’s lone division for women’s MMA.
As of last week, Cyborg’s manager, former UFC champion Tito Ortiz, stated that he’s hopeful his client will exit the UFC and pursue other options away from the Octagon.
For her part, Ronda Rousey isn’t worried about whether Santos ever fights in the UFC or not. She believes all of the talk about weight classes, signing with the UFC or not signing with the UFC and the splashy statements by her manager are all an attempt to keep her in the spotlight, despite the fact that she hasn’t won a fight since June 2010 (her last fight in Strikeforce was ruled a no-contest after Cyborg tested positive for banned substances).
“No, not really at all,” Rousey answered, when asked if she was disappointed that a fight with Cyborg was all but off the table, when speaking to media on a UFC conference cell held Tuesday.
“I think that she’s just kind of making a lot of noise, and trying to get attention because she’s kind of fading into being irrelevant. She hasn’t a recorded win in what about two years? She needs to have people going on TV and making a big fuss so people will even remember her name.”
Rousey believes that she has plenty of fighters to face in the UFC, and none of them have to be named Cris Cyborg. On the flip side, however, Rousey knows that the former 145-pound Strikeforce champion only has one real choice in her career, making the move down to bantamweight and facing her in the Octagon.
“To be honest, I have a lot of options ahead of me. I have a lot of girls I could fight, and she doesn’t really have any other options besides me. So they can run around and make a bunch of noise and be a big ‘Cry-borg’ as much as she wants, but at some point she’s going to have to come around and take the only fight that’s really available for her,” said Rousey.
“In the meantime, I’m going to take the plenty of options that are available to me.”
Those options now include her former opponent Miesha Tate and newcomer Cat Zingano, who square off in April as part of The Ultimate Fighter finale show. The UFC also announced on Tuesday that former Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann and Strikeforce veteran Alexis Davis have been added to the growing women’s roster.
All things considered, Rousey has plenty to focus on, including her UFC 157 opponent Liz Carmouche, and she doesn’t need to fret about Cris Cyborg one ounce at all.
“No, I’m not really putting any of my time worrying about her,” said Rousey. “Because Liz Carmouche is 100-percent of my attention right now, and ‘Cy-Roid’ is not worth my time at the moment.”
Damon Martin is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.
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