(Cyborg at 135 will be a scary woman, especially to other 135-pound women)
In an interview she did this week with TATAME, Strikeforce featherweight champ Cristiane Santos revealed a bit of insight into the plans the promotion has for its women’s division.
According to “Cyborg,” the Zuffa-owned organization has asked her to drop down to 135 following her December 17 title defense against Hiroko Yamanaka as they are looking to do away with the 145-pound class since they can’t find anyone to face her. On the bright side, Santos says she’s lucky that Strikeforce is accommodating the women on its roster considering UFC president Dana White’s thoughts on female MMA.
“I signed the contract for these four fights after UFC purchased Strikeforce, so I guess they’ll keep us, they’ll keep the female divisions and female MMA keeps growing and growing, and I guess they’re keeping the girls and it depends on what we do to call UFC’s attention,” Santos explains. “[As of right now there] are still two weight divisions: 135lbs and 145lbs.”
The 26-year-old Brazilian, who already cuts a massive amount of weight to make 145, says she’ll have her work cut out for her dropping another 10 pounds, but she’s willing to give it a shot if it means keeping her job.
“It’s already hard for me to drop to 145lbs, I gotta work a lot and they’re thinking about one division only. They asked me if I could do it. I can try; it’s not impossible. Let’s see… I guess that in the future there’ll be some news,” she predicts. “It’ll be hard because I got a lot of weight to lose, but it’d be good because I could fight more. I guess it’s important to keep active, it’s my job, so I’ll try it to stay here.”
In other news, the whole Strikeforce women’s 135-pound division announced today that it will be dropping to 125.
I say put Cris in with some of the men her size and see how she does if they can’t find women to fight her. The only problem with that plan that is they’d probably give Kenny Florian an immediate title shot at the new unisex belt.