Cyborg hasn’t hid the fact that she wants that money fight against Ronda Rousey.
A new promotional star was born at UFC 198 as the most devastating female MMA fighter on planet Earth did not fail to disappoint in her debut.
Cristiane Justino delivered on the hype in front of her hometown by running through Leslie Smith with ease, finishing the American via first-round TKO in the 140 lb catchweight bout.
WATCH: Cyborg's UFC debut was as devastating as everyone expected #UFC198 https://t.co/fRV60KPMtP
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 15, 2016
However, after the bout, Cyborg was surprisingly reserved in her Octagon interview, refusing to call out former bantamweight queen Ronda Rousey, as many people expected her to do. Cyborg admitted refusing to name drop Rousey on the night, as it was her moment, not Rowdy’s.
Well, it seems that moment has passed as the Brazilian striking phenom has finally called out her arch rival through social media. Rousey, who has gone into hiding after Holly Holm’s seismic head kick rendered her unconscious in 2014, will be doing extremely well to ignore this.
Cyborg is no stranger to destroying stars, having already ended the fighting career of WMMA’s first superstar, Gina Carano, in Strikeforce. However, before everyone gets excited about a Rousey vs Cyborg superfight on the massive New York card, George Lockhart has made some comments that have us less hopeful that the fight will actually happen.
Cyborg’s nutritionist told SiriusXM Rush that he would be able to get Cyborg down to 135 lbs, Rousey’s weight, but it may come at a cost.
“You hit the nail right on the head. Could she make the cut? Absolutely. She can make 135. She can make 130, but performing? That’s another question. That right there comes down to time. She put in a lot of time for this.”
“People don’t realize how hard it was just to get down to 139. She had to do three-a-days every single day of the week. Sundays she had a day off, but still. Three-a-days, it’s a lot. She’s running, doing a lot of road work.”
Cris Cyborg 139lbs for UFC debut but expected fight weight much, much, much higher ��🍩��https://t.co/Tnqhu0H5q9
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 14, 2016
Lockhart added that if she came to him explicitly asking to get her down to bantamweight, he would take her request seriously. Although, he wouldn’t be confident that she would be as devastating at 135 lbs.
“If she ever said, ‘You know what? I want to come down to the 135.’ I think it’d be possible, but is it definite? Honestly, I don’t know. The amount of work she put in to get to 139…”
