Former Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg has her sights set on getting into the UFC and getting a fight with long time rival and current UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. Cyborg made her intentions public last week, when she issued a statement that she finally will try to come down to the bantamweight division for the potential opportunity to face Rousey later this year.
UFC President Dana White has been critical of Cyborg over the past couple of weeks, citing her positive test for steroids in 2011 as a strike that may keep her out of the UFC. Cyborg has since been tested twice and passed(not saying it’s impossible to take steroids and not get caught with the drug tests that are used nowadays), but at least it’s on record that she has passed a drug test since being caught. It’s funny there’s that double standard when Vitor Belfort has been caught cheating, yet is getting a title shot later this year while being in the conversation for TRT use as well.
I think the UFC will eventually sign Cris Cyborg, however, she needs to follow Ronda Rousey’s blueprint to get into the UFC:
- Keep being vocal about her desire to fight Rousey
- Fight more often and keep winning fights in impressive fashion
Basically, Cyborg needs to keep doing what she’s doing, being vocal about her desire to fight Rousey. If they fought tomorrow that fight would be the largest fight in women’s MMA history by far. It’s the fight that fans what to see, and usually that’s all that matters at the end of the day. Ronda Rousey was vocal in her fights prior to the UFC having a women’s division, and is largely solely responsible for women fighting in the UFC. Cyborg already has name value. I was speaking to a friend of mine who’s a casual fan of MMA prior to UFC 170, and even he asked me when Cyborg was fighting again when I told him that women were fighting on the upcoming UFC card.
Cyborg needs to fight more often and keep winning fights impressively. Cyborg fought twice in 2013 after sitting out all of 2012 serving her suspension for the positive drug test. In fact, Cyborg has only fought more than twice in a year once in her entire career. In contrast, Rousey has fought nine times since making her professional debut in March 2011, winning all of those fights via either submission or TKO. If Cyborg is able to make the bantamweight weight limit and win impressively, the calls for Rousey to face Cyborg will be too loud for the UFC to ignore. The belief that Cyborg can’t make the women’s bantamweight has largely been the barrier keeping the fight from happening.
The winning fights in impressive fashion is something that Cyborg has been doing her entire career. She has finished her last six opponents via TKO/KO.
Cyborg has disdain for Rousey and believes the UFC is protecting Rousey from having to face her. However, Cyborg could learn from what Rousey did to finally earn her shot to dethrone the current face of women’s MMA.