Ronda Rousey will not fight Chris Cyborg, UFC President Dana White says.
Rumors have been flying about Rousey, the current UFC women’s bantamweight titleholder, going up against Cyborg, aka Cristiane Justino.
Cyborg is the current Invicta FC World Featherweight Champion.
Cyborg recently said that she would drop to the 135 pound division by getting the Invicta 135 pound belt before moving to UFC to take on Rousey.
However, her recent steroid suspension is one of the reasons the fight won’t happen, White said.
“I can’t believe people are asking me about Cyborg, number one,” White told BT Sport. “First of all, she does not fight here. Everybody realizes that, right? She weighs 145 pounds and her genius manager, Tito Ortiz, said that she would die if she went to 135 pounds. She’s also coming off a steroid suspension last time she was here.”
“I can’t even, it drives me nuts. [Rousey] will not fight Cyborg. I don’t know who she’s going to fight. She’s going to go film ‘Entourage,’ the movie, and then we will figure out what’s next for her,” White added.
Cyborg in her announcement said that she would “retire” Rousey like she did with Gina Carano if the fight happened.
“My English is not that great, so sorry if I was misunderstood. I didn’t literally mean I would die if I made 135. What I meant was that my doctor recommended that I did not fight the rest of my career at 135, which is what the UFC wanted,” she said.
She said that Rousey has fought at 154 poudns in the Olympics and 145 pounds in the past in MMA, so they should meet at 140 pounds. But Cyborg said that she will work hard to make it to 135 pounds, and that she can fight three times there--once to get the Invicta belt, the second time to beat Rousey, and the third time to beat Rousey again “so the world can see it wasn’t luck.”
In reference to the steroid use, Cyborg said: “You can even have me tested every week up to the fight.”
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