Tuesday was, if nothing else, a day of mixed emotions for Cristiane Cyborg Justino. During the afternoon, she experienced the high of gaining United States citizenship in a ceremony held in her adopted hometown of Los Angeles. A few hours later, that was followed by the low of the announcement that the inaugural UFC Women’s Featherweight Championship fight at UFC 208 will not involve her, instead pitting Holly Holm against Germaine de Randamie.
Unsurprisingly, she’s not exactly thrilled, as she told MMAFighting’s Guilherme Cruz. While she’s “happy the UFC created my division” after “11 years [that] I’m fighting for women to have the same rights as men with several divisions,” her happiness with the development ends there. “Everybody knows I’m the featherweight champion. “I’m undefeated for 10 years in my division. They put this belt only to sell the fight for the new MMA fans. For an example, Holly is coming off two consecutive losses and will fight for the belt. The real fight fans know what’s real.”
When asked if she is optimistic about fighting the Holm-de Randamie, Justino wasn’t getting her hopes up. “I have no idea, there are no rules in MMA,” she said. “The last fight in the men’s 145-pound division, a 10-0 fighter fought a guy who was 1-5 in his last fights. Other fighters like me have to wait for a title fight. I’m fighting for my division for 10 years, and until yesterday Dana said there were no women. This is our reality.”
Justino had been offered fights with both fighters on the same card, citing the need for a longer camp the make the weight properly after her last cut, to 140 pounds, caused health problems. Realistically speaking, Holm pretty much turned down the fight, as she would only agree to a bout at 138 pounds, even lower than the 140 pound mark Cyborg is no longer willing to cut to. Germaine de Randamie, however, was fully on board for a 145 pound title fight with Cyborg.
Cyborg is still technically the Invicta FC Featherweight Champion, and was not defending the title as of late while the promotion attempted to build new challengers. She had been competing in Invicta while under UFC contract, with the latter covering her fight purses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcj64LDGrhc
Tuesday was, if nothing else, a day of mixed emotions for Cristiane Cyborg Justino. During the afternoon, she experienced the high of gaining United States citizenship in a ceremony held in her adopted hometown of Los Angeles. A few hours later, that was followed by the low of the announcement that the inaugural UFC Women’s Featherweight Championship fight at UFC 208 will not involve her, instead pitting Holly Holm against Germaine de Randamie.
Unsurprisingly, she’s not exactly thrilled, as she told MMAFighting’s Guilherme Cruz. While she’s “happy the UFC created my division” after “11 years [that] I’m fighting for women to have the same rights as men with several divisions,” her happiness with the development ends there. “Everybody knows I’m the featherweight champion. “I’m undefeated for 10 years in my division. They put this belt only to sell the fight for the new MMA fans. For an example, Holly is coming off two consecutive losses and will fight for the belt. The real fight fans know what’s real.”
When asked if she is optimistic about fighting the Holm-de Randamie, Justino wasn’t getting her hopes up. “I have no idea, there are no rules in MMA,” she said. “The last fight in the men’s 145-pound division, a 10-0 fighter fought a guy who was 1-5 in his last fights. Other fighters like me have to wait for a title fight. I’m fighting for my division for 10 years, and until yesterday Dana said there were no women. This is our reality.”
Justino had been offered fights with both fighters on the same card, citing the need for a longer camp the make the weight properly after her last cut, to 140 pounds, caused health problems. Realistically speaking, Holm pretty much turned down the fight, as she would only agree to a bout at 138 pounds, even lower than the 140 pound mark Cyborg is no longer willing to cut to. Germaine de Randamie, however, was fully on board for a 145 pound title fight with Cyborg.
Cyborg is still technically the Invicta FC Featherweight Champion, and was not defending the title as of late while the promotion attempted to build new challengers. She had been competing in Invicta while under UFC contract, with the latter covering her fight purses.
It looks like Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino will get her wish for the UFC to implicate a female featherweight division, however, she won’t be getting the first crack at the division’s title. The UFC has announced that former women’s bantamweight champion Holly ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ Holm will take on Germaine de Randamie at UFC 208 for
It looks like Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino will get her wish for the UFC to implicate a female featherweight division, however, she won’t be getting the first crack at the division’s title.
The UFC has announced that former women’s bantamweight champion Holly ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ Holm will take on Germaine de Randamie at UFC 208 for the opportunity at becoming the first women’s 145-pound champion:
De Randamie is currently the No. 11-ranked bantamweight in the UFC, and is riding a two-fight win streak since being knocked out by current 135-pound champ Amanda Nunes in 2013. ‘The Iron Lady’s’ most recent victory came at UFC Fight Night 87 from her hometown of Rotterdam, Netherlands, where she finished Anna Elmose in the first round of their bout.
Holm is a former UFC bantamweight champion who is most famously known for handing former 135-pound queen Ronda Rousey her first professional mixed martial arts (MMA) loss, with a second round head-kick knockout in their main event meeting at UFC 193 in November of last year.
She comes off of a unanimous decision loss to No. 2-ranked Valentina Shevchenko from their main event meeting in Chicago back in July at UFC on FOX 20. The loss marked her second in a row and also the second ever in her MMA career.
Now these two women will have the opportunity to make history by becoming the first female champion of the UFC at 145 pounds, something that Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino has been campaigning for heavily as of late. It was reported that a title bout between Holm and ‘Cyborg’ was offered to the Brazilian, but she had to turn it down as she did not have enough notice to make the weight cut.
Holm and De Randamie will compete at UFC 208 for the inaugural UFC women’s featherweight championship live on pay-per-view (PPV), from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on February 11, 2017.
The UFC didn’t seem interested in adding a third female division to the promotion.
That has changed.
At UFC 208, Holly Holm will face Germaine de Randamie for the inaugural featherwe…
The UFC didn’t seem interested in adding a third female division to the promotion.
That has changed.
At UFC 208, Holly Holm will face Germaine de Randamie for the inaugural featherweight title.
Holm (10-2) finds herself on a two-fight skid, falling to Valentina Shevchenko via decision and dropping the UFC female bantamweight belt to Miesha Tate this past March.
Prior to the losses, the former boxing world champion had won all 10 of her pro fights, including a knockout of Ronda Rousey for the belt in 2015.
De Randamie (7-3) has scored back-to-back TKO finishes since a loss to current UFC bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. She is 4-1 over her last five and 3-1 inside the Octagon.
Another interesting bout has been added to UFC’s upcoming return to Germany.
Ashlee Evans-Smith will be going one-on-one against Germaine de Randamie at the UFC Fight Night Hamburg event scheduled for later this year, according to a new report at MM…
Another interesting bout has been added to UFC’s upcoming return to Germany.
Ashlee Evans-Smith will be going one-on-one against Germaine de Randamie at the UFC Fight Night Hamburg event scheduled for later this year, according to a new report at MMAFighting.com.
Headlined by Andrei Arlovski vs. Josh Barnett and featuring Alexander Gustafsson vs. Jan Blachowicz, UFC Fight Night 93 takes place on September 3, 2016 in Hamburg, Germany.
Over the course of the sport’s short history, Thailand’s revered Muay Thai kickboxing has become one of the most common and successful bases from which to transfer to MMA. While we’ve learned that having skills in only one discipline is not a recipe for success in the modern version of MMA, many fighters with a focus on “the
Over the course of the sport’s short history, Thailand’s revered Muay Thai kickboxing has become one of the most common and successful bases from which to transfer to MMA.
While we’ve learned that having skills in only one discipline is not a recipe for success in the modern version of MMA, many fighters with a focus on “the art of eight limbs” have found incredible success in the Octagon.
Originating in Thailand, where a booming professional scene still flourishes, Muay Thai is now used by combatants from all over the world.
This piece aims to rank the ten best fighters employing the striking style today. Devastating clinch work, slashing elbows, whipping kicks, and crushing knees all could gain a fighter entry to this list, as well as a traditional Muay Thai background. Those that use them to the most damaging effect, rely on them as fundamental to their games, and utilize a combination of these characteristic techniques set themselves apart and climb the ranks.
This is not an all-time list. That may come later. This one looks at the fighters on the current UFC roster most likely to finish a fight from the thai plum, break someone’s nose with a standing elbow, or send an opponent crashing to the canvas with a knee to the solar plexus.
Continue for the list of the best Muay Thai kickboxers in the UFC.
According to Megan Olivi via UFC Tonight, UFC officials are targeting to get Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino back inside the Octagon in Atlanta for UFC 201. ‘Cyborg’s’ targeted opponent is said to be Germaine de Randamie who is coming off a big win in her home country of the Netherlands. Randamie (6-3) is riding a two-fight
According to Megan Olivi via UFC Tonight, UFC officials are targeting to get Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino back inside the Octagon in Atlanta for UFC 201.
‘Cyborg’s’ targeted opponent is said to be Germaine de Randamie who is coming off a big win in her home country of the Netherlands.
BREAKING: Cris Cyborg vs. Germaine de Randamie targeted for catchweight bout at UFC 201(July 30th)
Randamie (6-3) is riding a two-fight win streak since losing to Amanda Nunes in 2013 at UFC: Fight For The Troops 3. Randamie comes off of a first round TKO finish of Anna Elmose at UFC Fight Night 87 in Rotterdam earlier this month.
‘Cyborg'(16-1-1) is coming off her first round thrashing of Leslie Smith at UFC 198 in her hometown of Curitiba, Brazil, where the Brazilian powerhouse made her long-awaited UFC debut.
Justino’s bout at 198 took place at a catchweight of 140 pounds, as ‘Cyborg’ is the current Invicta FC featherweight champion (145 pounds), a division the UFC currently does not have for women.
Following the targeted bout’s announcement, Justino took to Twitter to do a little trash-talking:
While it was not said if Justino’s bout with Randamie will also be contested at a catchweight, MMA fans are gonna sleep happy tonight knowing we haven’t seen the last of ‘Cyborg’ in the UFC.
