UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping is well known for his trash-talking antics, but the Brit was in a more sympathetic mode when he was asked his opinion about UFC Fight Night 95 headliner Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino yesterday.
Invicta 145lb champion ‘Cyborg’ is in the middle of weight-cut hell as she attempts to cut 25lb in less than a week to make the 140lb catchweight limit imposed by the UFC for her main event fight with Lina Lansberg on Saturday night in Brazil.
Some observers have expressed a level of discomfort at ‘Cybog’ being forced to fight below her natural weight class, and it seems that Bisping is among them.
“She’s been doing everything she can to make the weight,” Bisping at a media day ahead of his title fight with Dan Henderson at UFC 204 next month. “I think the reality is she’s just too big for that weight. But according to [her coach] Jason Parillo, she will make the weight. She’ll do what’s necessary and she’ll get it done. If she does, god bless her. Good for her.”
“It’s a shame for her, to be honest,” he continued. “There isn’t a 145-pound division in the UFC, which is where she fights. She fights at 145. And for her to be in the UFC, they’ve said 140. I understand it from the UFC’s perspective, I understand it from Cyborg’s. She’s just too big. That’s the reality of the situation. She’s just too big.”
On the bright side, despite ‘Cyborg’s’ fears that a birth control pill her diet coach had advised her to take during camp had left her heavier than normal, she does appear to be on course to make weight, being around 10lbs over the limit a day out from weigh-ins.
Also, Canadian officials have ruled that as his customary with all divisional non-title bouts, ‘Cyborg’ will be allowed to come in 1lb over her catchweight limit, meaning that she now only has to reach 141lbs by Friday morning in Brazil.
