Cris ‘Cyborg’Justino Raring To Fight Ronda Rousey In December, Nears 135 Weight Mark
Everybody wants a piece of Ronda Rousey. Dana White is salivating at the thought of pairing her with Gina Carano, the original face of women's UFC. Bethe Correia already called her out after a win over teammate Shane Baszler. Here comes Cris "Cyborg" Justino raring to go down to the 135 weight mark and challenge Rousey to a fight.
Justino has a match date in December at Invicta FC 10 but no fighter was chosen to face her and it will be at a lower weight class at 135 pounds from her usual 145 pounds. According to teammates and handlers, the former Strikeforce champion is pulling out a rigid training regimen to meet her target in order to challenge UFC's bantamweight champion Rousey.
There were initial reports that Cyborg was offered the fight when Strikeforce was incorporated into the UFC but the short timetable to meet the catch weight dissolved that possibility. Now Shannon Knapp is raring to pit her Brazilian fighter against the UFC's best.
"Everything seems to be on schedule", Knapp told Sherdog in a recent interview. "She is pumped up and ready. She is making her way. She wants that fight with Ronda. She is putting in the hard work, the time and the effort to get that fight. I think she's very focused on getting to where she needs to be and where she needs to go to have that matchup."
Knapp declares that his ward is putting it out there that she is really pushing herself hard to silence critics. The Brazilian was a target of pundits who were talking about her muscle mass and steroid use. Justino was suspended for a year and was fined $2,500 after testing positive for anabolic steroids after her fight in 2011.
Rousey was quoted in an April 2014 when she remarked that she could not care less if Cyborg was injecting horse semen into the eyeballs and that she will be willing to fight her. She also remarked that Cyborg was injecting steroids for so long that she may no longer be a woman.
Knapp and InvictaFC are ecstatic of pairing up the allegedly best women fighters in the world. And if making 135 is the only hindrance to a fight with Rousey, Knapp has said in early June that they are willing to document the whole process to show the world that their ward is committed. He went as far as saying that they would make a documentary of the process available to fans.
With the list of fighters all lining up to dent the immaculate record of Rousey, Dana White will have his hands full selecting the best that can rake in the most dough.