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Frustrated by Scott Coker’s inability to find her competition, Strikeforce women’s middleweight champion Cristiane Cyborg Santos is looking to the WWE for that competition from the likes of Kelly Kelly, the Bella Twins, and Layla El. Yes, Cyborg could be the next WWE Diva.

A newspaper out of Brazil is reporting that the middleweight champion of Strikeforce’s women’s division Cris Cyborg Santos is in negotiations with the WWE to turn pro wrestler. The report alleges that Lady Cyborg is upset that Strikeforce has only been able to find her one opponent in eight months. According to the report the WWE has already made her a deal although Cyborg has yet to accept what is currently on the table.

It has to be incredibly frustrating if you are Cris Cyborg Santos. The woman is so good that it is almost near impossible to find her quality opponents. Let’s be honest, what woman in her right mind would want to fight Santos after watching the way she destroyed Gina Carano and massacred Jan Finney? Unfortunately for Santos she is so much better than her competition that finding her an opponent in a sport with little depth to begin with is never going to be easy.

This is also an interesting twist in the trend of pro wrestlers turning MMA fighters. Santos would be the first high profile MMA fighter since Dan Severn and Ken Shamrock to leave fighting and go to the WWE. After Severn and Shamrock made the switch the reverse happened where WWE wrestlers went into MMA. Of course there were high level MMA fighters than wrestled occasionally in Japan, but it has been a long time since the WWE was able to lure one away from MMA.

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It would also follow the WWE signing Awesome Kong in the sports entertainment company breaking away with its trend of recruiting women with bikini bodies and little to no wrestling experience. This one would be huge because Cyborg fits neither requirement of being an experienced pro wrestler or having the prototypical bikini model look (although she had an offer from Playboy). From all accounts of the report it appears that the WWE are ready to open up the doors for Cyborg which would certainly make for one of the most interesting WWE signings in years.

The other alternative would be negotiating with the UFC. Santos is under contract so that can’t happen (at least publicly). I wrote a guest post last year and talked specifically about this and made a plea for Dana White to sign Cyborg and build a women’s division around her. She would be an instant star in the UFC and her greatness would be rewarded rather than used against her by not booking her opponents. Unfortunately Dana White and the UFC don’t seem to interested in creating a women’s MMA division.

The report indicates Cyborg hasn’t signed yet which leads me to believe that she wants to stay in MMA. From every interview I have read with her over the years it appears she loves the sport and I am sure it is making this decision incredibly frustrating. There are middleweight women MMA fighters out there, but whether it is just a complete fear of fighting her or Scott Coker‘s lack of interest in the division, something has to give at some point here.

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