During a recent interview, Justino shared her thoughts on the public reaction to Rousey’s first MMA loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193 in November. Cyborg explained why no fighter likes to lose, however, she admits it does show you who really has your back and who doesn’t.
Cyborg offered the following comments regarding Rousey’s loss while promoting her own title defense against Daria Ibragimova at the Invicta FC 15 this Saturday, relating to the former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion because of her own past troubles in public when she dealt with the reaction to her failed steroid test.
“It’s terrible. When you’re there, everybody is with you. I feel sorry about this. I know this, because before something happened in my career — the doping — and before everybody is with you [and then they’re not]. But I love my fans. Some fans kept with me and I’m sure she has that, too. It’s sad, but sometimes it’s good so you can see who’s with you. You can see who you really have to appreciate. This is not nice. Losing a fight, winning — it happens. But these people make fun. … I know it’s not nice.”
While she is understanding of the situation, she did say that Rousey should use this experience to work on being careful about what she says before a fight, pointing out the fact that it might come back around if you lose.
“I know she hurts now and I know depression. Always you can lose. You can lose, you can win. It’s not embarrassing. It’s embarrassing when you speak before you fight. It’s embarrassing speaking bad. I think you have to work hard on what you say, because if you lose, when you come back from the airport you have to have a pillow on your face. I think she’d like to use this to challenge herself and get better. To come in and change. Something bad in life has to happen before you change and grow. I can’t say anything bad about her. She’s been good for women’s MMA. She opened a lot of doors. I know I [fought] before her, but she had opportunities and she’s handled it and helped everybody.”
We’re going to have to wait a little longer to see if Cristiane Justino can make 135 pounds.
Justino was scheduled to fight at bantamweight for the very first time at Invicta FC 10. Alas, the MMA gods are cruel and spiteful creatures. “Cyborg” recently sustained an ankle injury (a tear of her anterior talofibular ligament, according to Sherdog) and won’t be able to fight.
BUMMER.
(Photo via Getty)
We’re going to have to wait a little longer to see if Cristiane Justino can make 135 pounds.
Justino was scheduled to fight at bantamweight for the very first time at Invicta FC 10. Alas, the MMA gods are cruel and spiteful creatures. “Cyborg” recently sustained an ankle injury (a tear of her anterior talofibular ligament, according to Sherdog) and won’t be able to fight.
BUMMER.
The biggest hurdle to Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino vs. Ronda Rousey has always been the weight issue. Rousey fights at bantamweight and Cyborg always claimed she couldn’t make that weight — this was until July when she announced she was going to finally fight at 135 pounds.
If she made bantamweight in Invicta (a quasi-appendage of the UFC) and won, it’s not presumptuous to think Cyborg might wind up in the UFC fighting Ronda Rousey at some point in the near future.
But no such luck, at least for now.
By the way, speaking of Invicta, there was an Invicta event on last night: Invicta FC 9. The full results are below if you’re interested:
Barb Honchak def. Takayo Hashi via unanimous decision (49-46, 50-45, 50-45)
Karolina Kowalkiewicz def. Mizuki Inoue via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Raquel Pa’aluhi def. Kaitlin Young via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Jodie Esquibel def. Nicdali Rivera-Calanoc via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Amber Brown def. Liz McCarthy via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
Amanda Bell def. Maria Hougaard Djursaa via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:56
Andrea K. Lee def. Shannon Sinn via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Jamie Moyle def. Jenny Liou via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Kelly McGill def. Maegan Goodwin via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Ronda Rousey kneed Sara McMann into oblivion in a minute…or at least Herb Dean thought McMann had been kneed into oblivion. MMA fans were split about that part. Some thought the stoppage was deserved—McMann stopped intelligently defending herself when she crumpled to the mat clutching her sides. Others disagreed, citing the fact that McMann managed to rise to her feet immediately after Dean called off the bout (an intrepid Wikipedia vandal belonged to this school of thought).
The irritating ruckus that follows any disputed stoppage polluted Twitter and message boards before Rousey’s hand was even raised. MMA fans were (and still are) pissed.
Ronda Rousey kneed Sara McMann into oblivion in a minute…or at least Herb Dean thought McMann had been kneed into oblivion. MMA fans were split about that part. Some thought the stoppage was deserved—McMann stopped intelligently defending herself when she crumpled to the mat clutching her sides. Others disagreed, citing the fact that McMann managed to rise to her feet immediately after Dean called off the bout (an intrepid Wikipedia vandal belonged to this school of thought).
The irritating ruckus that follows any disputed stoppage polluted Twitter and message boards before Rousey’s hand was even raised. MMA fans were (and still are) pissed.
And that’s fantastic.
The UFC women’s bantamweight division is essentially a feeder system for Ronda Rousey, as well as a promotional vehicle for the conventionally attractive (they’ll never let you forget that) Judo star. Dana White admitted that he only allowed women in the UFC because of her. The rest of the division has no chance at taking the belt from her—did you seeAlexis Davis vs. Jessica Eye? Those women are two of the best in the weight class yet they’re both still milesastronomical units away from Rousey.
This formula of sacrificing over-matched fighters to the UFC’s sacred cash cow has worked. Ridiculous Dana White assertions aside, Rousey is one of the UFC’s only stars in a roster so bloated and bland that Lorenzo Fertitta himself probably couldn’t name half the fighters. Rousey is legitimately a super-awesome bad-ass who wrecks people and, to borrow Tomas Rios’ parlance, a Bro Queen. She’s tailor made for the MMA fan, from her unique Judo stylings down to the one-of-a-kind face she sports when walking to the cage. But as great as she is, the conveyor belt of challengers who pose no challenge will get boring.
After a while, fans will realize that the Woman to Beat Rousey™ conveniently always happens to be whoever she’s fighting next, and always gets destroyed anyway despite the hype of being Ronda’s “most dangerous opponent to date.” One day fans will get sick of Rousey crushing fighters that aren’t on her level in any aspect of MMA or even athleticism.
Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino seems the likely solution for this problem. She’s the only fighter scarier than Rousey. She’s so tough she made Gina Carano—then WMMA’s biggest star—retire after five minutes in the cage with her.
Too bad Dana White has zero interest in booking that fight, at least in the immediate future. Either he’s posturing, trying to downplay Justino’s value for the sake of negotiations, or he’s afraid that the female version of PRIDE-era Wanderlei Silva will slaughter his prized cash cow, Rousey. It seems White is content to not book what would be the biggest fight in WMMA history so Cyborg can continue to torture lesser fighters outside the UFC and Rousey can continue to torture lesser fighters inside the UFC.
Well what about famed boxer Holly Holm? She’s an impressive 6-0 in MMA and Rousey even expressed interest in fighting her. Too bad White doesn’t seem interested in that match either. This December he called Holm’s manager a “lunatic” and questioned the strength of Holm’s competition, insinuating she wasn’t UFC caliber (despite that term being obscenely meaningless in 2014).
The UFC doesn’t want to book the two biggest fights for Rousey. What’s left for her, then? Crushing the same cadre of women ad nauseam until she leaves for Hollywood or baby-making?
That’s why a controversial stoppage in Rousey vs. McMann was the best thing that could’ve happened. Many fans contested Herb Dean’s choice to stop the fight. The UFC can do the whole “Did Rousey REALLY beat McMann?” angle this time, and people will respond positively to it because it’s not a manufactured “OMG OLYMPIANS” gimmick. It’s appealing to the real emotions present. People felt the stoppage was BS, they want to see McMann fight Rousey again because she was doing well until Rousey’s knee smashed her liver.
The stoppage gave the UFC women’s bantamweight division a storyline—something to potentially look forward to other than clinch-throw-armbar-tap. And what if McMann gets a rematch and wins? Then WMMA will no-doubt have its first great trilogy when Rousey and McMann fight a third time. With Rousey’s star power it’ll be huge.
So let’s be thankful for Herb Dean’s questionable call, without it we’d have yawned and asked “who’s Rousey beating next?”
It’s a moot issue at this point, but we triple dog dare you to watch Cyborg’s victory over the previously undefeated (and late replacement opponent) Jennifer Colomb at Lion Fight 11 without asking the same questions. Although the fight went down last Friday, a full video of their two round Muay Thai bout has only recently been made available, likely because it was being used as evidence in an assault case filed against Justino that has since been dropped.
As for the fight itself…what would you expect? Cyborg swarms Colomb with a Tasmanian Devil-esque flurry of punches, kicks, knees, spinning backfists/elbows, haidukens, ice freeze attacks, Falcon punches and Bob-ombs at every conceivable opportunity until Colomb just sort of wilts from the sheer magnitude of it all. I’m telling you, have Cyborg strap on (HOLD IT) a face mask and some skates and she would have Milan Lucic shitting out his own eyeballs within the first period.
This is normally where I’d ask an obvious question — something like “Are there any intriguing non-UFC fights left for Cyborg?” — but we all know that answer.
It’s a moot issue at this point, but we triple dog dare you to watch Cyborg’s victory over the previously undefeated (and late replacement opponent) Jennifer Colomb at Lion Fight 11 without asking the same questions. Although the fight went down last Friday, a full video of their two round Muay Thai bout has only recently been made available, likely because it was being used as evidence in an assault case filed against Justino that has since been dropped.
As for the fight itself…what would you expect? Cyborg swarms Colomb with a Tasmanian Devil-esque flurry of punches, kicks, knees, spinning backfists/elbows, haidukens, ice freeze attacks, Falcon punches and Bob-ombs at every conceivable opportunity until Colomb just sort of wilts from the sheer magnitude of it all. I’m telling you, have Cyborg strap on (HOLD IT) a face mask and some skates and she would have Milan Lucic shitting out his own eyeballs within the first period.
This is normally where I’d ask an obvious question — something like “Are there any intriguing non-UFC fights left for Cyborg?” — but we all know that answer.
It hasn’t even been two weeks since Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino fought and won in MMA against Marloes Coenen at Invicta FC 6, but the new featherweight champion has booked not one but two Muay Thai fights for herself on August 25th in Thailand. “Cyborg will take on France’s top kickboxer Angelique Pitiot and Italy’s Annalisa Bucci, with one taking three rounds and the other two rounds,” Wombat Sports reports.
“Cyborg” represents the famed Brazilian Chute Boxe team, which has Muay Thai as its base, but according to the report, the fighter has never previously been to the kickboxing style’s motherland of Thailand. While many fighters travel to exotic locations in the weeks after fights for vacation, Justino is going to Thailand to fight two women back-to-back just because she can.
Say what you will about her questionable Tito Ortiz-driven decision of turning down a contract with the UFC, but this lady isn’t afraid to fight for her money, that’s for sure. We don’t know much about her two scheduled opponents but considering the fact that five rounds of shadow-boxing — much less actual fighting — gets us winded, we’re quite impressed with Cyborg’s latest goal.
Oh yeah, Kim Couture is also on the card, fighting Thai fighter Petchrocha Looksaikongdin. First off, we didn’t realize that “Sugar Free” (ugh) was still competing. Secondly, fighting someone with that many syllables in their name, in their own backyard, doesn’t seem like a great idea for Kim, who is no stranger to unfortunatebeat-downs.
After the jump: Cris Cyborg destroys some broad named Edna in a Muay Thai rules bout back in 2006.
(Photo via Esther Lin/Invicta FC)
It hasn’t even been two weeks since Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino fought and won in MMA against Marloes Coenen at Invicta FC 6, but the new featherweight champion has booked not one but two Muay Thai fights for herself on August 25th in Thailand. “Cyborg will take on France’s top kickboxer Angelique Pitiot and Italy’s Annalisa Bucci, with one taking three rounds and the other two rounds,” Wombat Sports reports.
“Cyborg” represents the famed Brazilian Chute Boxe team, which has Muay Thai as its base, but according to the report, the fighter has never previously been to the kickboxing style’s motherland of Thailand. While many fighters travel to exotic locations in the weeks after fights for vacation, Justino is going to Thailand to fight two women back-to-back just because she can.
Say what you will about her questionable Tito Ortiz-driven decision of turning down a contract with the UFC, but this lady isn’t afraid to fight for her money, that’s for sure. We don’t know much about her two scheduled opponents but considering the fact that five rounds of shadow-boxing — much less actual fighting — gets us winded, we’re quite impressed with Cyborg’s latest goal.
Oh yeah, Kim Couture is also on the card, fighting Thai fighter Petchrocha Looksaikongdin. First off, we didn’t realize that “Sugar Free” (ugh) was still competing. Secondly, fighting someone with that many syllables in their name, in their own backyard, doesn’t seem like a great idea for Kim, who is no stranger to unfortunatebeat-downs.
After the jump: Cris Cyborg destroys some broad named Edna in a Muay Thai rules bout back in 2006.
