MMA fans have long salivated over the prospect of the two most feared female fighters on the planet, Ronda Rousey and Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino, competing against each other in the Octagon, but there could be a major downside if that dream bout does ever take place.
“I have this idea in my mind that my final fight would be just beating the crap out of Cris Cyborg and then when Dana [White] puts the belt on me the last time, I can take it off and hand it back to him,” Rousey stated during a media engagement last week.
A fight between the two seems closer than ever now that Zuffa have brought ‘Cyborg’ under contract, though she still competes for Invicta FC for the time being where she is the 145lb champion and will have to prove that she can cut down to 135lbs in that promotion before getting the greenlight to move to the UFC.
If she can’t make weight it sounds like Rousey still has no intentions of meeting her at a catcheweight instead though.
“It’s entirely up to her,” Rousey said. “I’m not gonna go chasing her around. She’s not entitled to have me chase her around. She’s the fraud that got defamed. And if you can make 145 pumped full of steroids, you can get off of it and drop.”
In the mean time Rousey feels there’s still other opponents for her to overcome before she hangs up her gloves.
“I guess the day that I really feel like I run out is the day I’ll be done,” Rousey said. “Right now, they’re lining up around the block. When the day comes when I feel like I’ve done all I could do and the women’s strawweight division is being so successful and competitive is one of the most encouraging thing that’s happened. That division has nothing to do with me and it’s thriving. Once I feel like women’s MMA is really self-sustaining and something I can see lasting for decades without me, then I’ll be able step away. Everyone who says ‘you’re running out of opponents,’ you better hope I don’t run out. Because then I’ll be done.”
Next up for Rousey is a trip to Brazil on August 1st to take on her latest outspoken adversary Bethe Correia in her own backyard at UFC 190, while it’s all but set in stone that her next bout would be against the winner of Miesha Tate and Jessica Eye, a fight which takes place this weekend at UFC On FOX 16.
Rousey has already defeated Tate twice before, so while there is an engaging rivalry between them and ‘Cupcake’ has given the champion some of her most competitive action in the cage to date, if they do fight for a third time there will be a sense that they are starting to run out of ideas to keep Rousey occupied.
Potentially there’s also a fight with former decorated boxing champion Holly Holm in the future too, though so far ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ hasn’t shown much in her two Octagon outings to date to suggests she’s the one who can give Rousey a real run for her money.
Really, at this stage the fight with ‘Cyborg’ is the one that makes the most sense, but the UFC brass may now be more hesitant than ever to pull the trigger on this match-up given Rousey’s latest comments.
