According to Dana White and Cris Cyborg the long-awaited fight for a UFC women’s lightweight championship with Ronda Rousey may now be closer than it’s ever been.
The war of words between Rousey and Cyborg has been heated, to say the least, and it’s the fight MMA fans have been clamoring for over the past couple of years. Unfortunately, as Cyborg has been destroying her competition Rousey has been nowhere to be found.
There’s also the matter of weight, which is a significant issue for Cyborg as getting down to 135 is practically impossible for her.
However, during an appearance on the UFC Unfiltered podcast Dana White revealed that he offered Cyborg the chance to fight Holly Holm for a newly created women’s lightweight title at 145 pounds – an offer she did not take.
“What’s crazy about that is this: I offered Cris Cyborg a title fight at 145 pounds a month ago. She had eight weeks to get ready for it, she said she couldn’t make the weight, said she couldn’t make 145 pounds.
“So then I offered her another 145-pound title fight for Brooklyn (UFC 208), she turned it down. She turned down two 145-pound title fights. One because she said she couldn’t make 145 pounds in eight weeks, and Joe Silva’s like, ‘If she can’t make 145 pounds in eight weeks, 145 isn’t the right weight class for her either.’”
When asked about White’s comments by MMAFighting.com Cyborg clarified things and made it sound as if there now is actually a chance that we’ll see her and Rousey in the octagon together at some point.
In my last weight cut I almost died. I was in the bathtub cutting weight, and I thought, ‘I will die in this bathtub.’ It was the worst weight cut in my life. My nutritionist George Lockhart, who, by the way, is a UFC employee, didn’t do an effective job with this birth control pill he indicated saying that would help me. But thank God, in a war, I made weight, cutting 24 pounds in a week. My body was retaining a lot of water. The last time I spoke with George Lockhart was in the locker room before my fight. He disappeared after the fight. I’m not working with him anymore.
For the first time I didn’t warm up in the locker room like I do for every fight because I was too weak. I was just praying for God and went for the fight, and, once again, God gave me the victory. After all this, I went back to my hometown on Sunday and I felt sick on Sunday. My mother gave me tea and I fell asleep. The next day, like I always do after my fights, I did blood tests to see if everything was okay after a terrible weight cut. And for the first time, the nurses couldn’t take my blood, it was so thick it wouldn’t come out, so we couldn’t do tests. I was in treatment for 10 days with Dr. Ulisseia. I was in observation because I was feeling sick all the time.
You can see that I give no interviews after the fight. I told UFC Brazil PR Lilian (Caparroz) that I wanted to cancel all my interviews and couldn’t travel. After all that, at home, I decided I would not fight at this weight anymore, that I would only fight at my division. And only with 12 weeks’ notice. For my last fight, they told me eight weeks before.
I got a call from the UFC offering me another catchweight fight, and I said I would not fight at this weight anymore. I needed a break to get my health back to normal because my body was weak, I was anemic.
After that, they invited me to fight again, but this time at my weight and for the belt, but with 10 weeks’ notice. Knowing that I was recovering, like I said, I told them I can fight anyone in March, but I need to take care of my body, and no mention of the fact that I’m dealing with severe depression and can’t have another brutal weight cut like before. This decision is more important than the belt or the division, I’m thinking about my health.
I thank my fans. We did it! I’ll soon be fighting in my division, where I’m the world champion. You and God are loyal. I’ll be ready to fight in March.
Now, if Rousey can defeat Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 and regain her women’s bantamweight championship this would be an opportunity for her to follow in Conor McGregor’s footsteps and become the first woman to hold two titles at the same time.
The question at this point though is, does Rousey even care anymore?
H/T BSO