The UFC’s new 145 pound women’s division was just announced a mere day ago and already Ronda Rousey is casting a long shadow over it. Following news that Holly Holm would fight Germaine De Randamie for the inaugural women’s featherweight title at UFC 208 in Brooklyn, UFC president Dana White is now suggesting Ronda Rousey may get the winner.
“If Holly wins and becomes a champion, and that’s the scenario [Rousey regains the title]? I guarantee people will want to see it,” White told ESPN.
It’s hard to disagree with his assessment. Rousey vs Holm 2 is a fight that breaks a million pay-per-view buys — just play that footage of Holly kicking Ronda’s head off over and over again. Ronda might not like it, but getting into the McGregor double division champion club would take the sting out a little.
As for the #1 fighter at 145 pounds, Cris Cyborg, White dismissed the idea that he was disrespecting her by not giving her a shot at the new featherweight title first.
“We’re out to disrespect Cyborg?” he told ESPN incredulously. “She said she couldn’t make 145 pounds in eight weeks. We offered her a second and a third fight. She turned them down. With everything I’ve got going on in my life, the last thing I’m thinking is, ‘Hey, let’s get together and disrespect Cyborg.'”
“This is a business of opportunity. When opportunity arises, you jump up and take it. If you don’t, the bus is gone, and it passes you by.”
With the clock ticking on Ronda Rousey’s fighting career, Cris Cyborg could indeed end up getting bumped from second shot at the 145 pound belt should Holly Holm beat Germaine De Randamie (a prospect many bookies are expecting). But there’s a silver lining in all this: it would set up the long awaited superfight between Ronda Rousey and Cris Cyborg the world has been waiting for since the two established themselves at the top of their sport years ago.
