The best laid plans of the UFC rarely come to fruition, and with one massive headkick Holly Holm derailed the Ronda Rousey hype train and is forcing many people to rethink their direction for the coming year. The UFC was looking forward to Ronda facing Brazilian powerhouse Cris Cyborg at UFC 200, but now that fight has been scrapped in favor of an immediate rematch between Rousey and Holm. As for Cyborg, it sounds like she’s ditching her plans to fight at 140 pounds in January as a stepping stone towards 135 pounds, Ronda’s weight class.
Here’s Shannon Knapp, president of the Invicta FC league where Cyborg fights, explaining the situation on Inside MMA:
“I think, especially with the announcement that Ronda and Holly will have a rematch, I think it does kind of take [fighting at 135 pounds] off the table for her for a bit. But I still think that there’s a desire there at some point.”
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“Cyborg’s next fight will be at 145 pounds. This will be the first time that she has competed without hydrating herself with an IV. So she’s made the decision to go ahead and defend her [Invicta FC] belt.”
While Cyborg fights in Invicta FC, the UFC signed her to a lucrative six figure per fight contract in order to keep her in Rousey’s orbit for an eventual fight. That puts her under the same kind of USADA drug testing as UFC fighters, and USADA specifically bans rehydrating with IVs, something many fighters who cut a lot of weight have turned to in recent years.
Cris Cyborg’s decision to abort the cut is disappointing but not very surprising. She is a massive fighter who has struggled to make 145 pounds in the past, and has used the media several times to try and goad Rousey into a fight at her weight class, or at least a 140 pound catchweight. Rousey and the UFC have remained adamant that the fight must happen at 135 pounds. This has resulted in a stalemate that has been ongoing since 2012.
There will be many people who see this as Cris abandoning a cut she was never seriously devoted to making in the first place. After saying a cut to 135 pounds could be seriously damaging to her health, she started planning fights at 140 pounds but always cancelled them due to injury. Now she’s switching her January Invicta fight from a 140 pound catchweight fight to a 145 pound title defense.
It’s understandable considering Rousey is likely to face Holm in July for UFC 200, making November or December of 2016 the earliest Ronda and Cris might face off. Cyborg may just be recalibrating her cut by six months so she’s not hungry and miserable for longer than she has to be. But with so many questions surrounding her ability to make weight at all, it’s just another sign that a Rousey vs Cyborg fight is a long ways away, and not certain to happen at all.
