Cristiane Cyborg Santos says she is now willing to fight Ronda Rousey at 135 pounds in the UFC, giving fight fans the most anticipated fight in MMA Women’s history at some point in 2013.
[adinserter block=”1″]MMA social media went ballistic this week when UFC’s Brazilian website advertised Rousey vs. Santos for UFC 157. The fight was later removed off of the website but as the old saying goes, where there is smoke there is fire. While the fight is still not official for 157, Santos is telling the media that negotiations are currently in progress.
MMAJunkie.com did a great job of tracking down the former Strikeforce champion and asking her about the advertised fight. Santos confirmed that she was in talks with the UFC. The bigger news here is that it appears the one hurdle in making the fight has been cleared. Santos has agreed to fight at 135 pounds.
“In one month, I can’t do it, but if I have time, I could do it.”
The problem is the timing here in regards to UFC 157. Santos told the website that she could fight on UFC 157 but couldn’t get below 145 pounds by fight time. Regardless, the big news here is that Santos is on board at 135 for the fight. Santos is currently under suspension and is free to reapply for a license on December 17.
This puts the UFC in a real interesting predicament. Do they sit Rousey long enough to allow Santos to make weight? Do they risk Rousey fighting before then? Do they sign Santos to fight at 145 before then? There is high risk-high reward for all scenarios. The best case scenario would be to have them both fight at 157, win, and set up the grudge match for later next year. Unfortunately wins are never guaranteed in MMA so that always poses a major risk to the biggest female fight that the UFC will probably ever sign.
Rousey has insisted from the start that Santos drop to 135 to fight. I am still baffled as to why the UFC has supported her on this when the company is actively trying to get Georges St-Pierre to fight Anderson Silva out of his weight class and Silva to fight Jon Jones out of his. I always assumed that in order for Rousey to get a UFC deal that she’d have to agree to fight Santos at 140. Yet that doesn’t appear to be the case at all.
There is also the Strikeforce mess that has to be worked out. Dave Meltzer reports that Rousey can’t fight in the UFC until Strikeforce is officially closed or done with Showtime. Strikeforce has a show coming up January 12 that appears to be their final show. The UFC may not be contractually allowed to sign Rousey to any fights until the Strikeforce/Showtime relationship is officially dead. That would likely keep her off of the UFC 157 event regardless of whether Cyborg could make weight or not.
[adinserter block=”2″]There has always been a part of me that felt that Rousey is scared to fight Cyborg. Again, when a fighter says no to a fight that is guaranteed to bring them their biggest payday over five pounds I am dubious of his or her real intentions. Everyone made such a big deal of Jon Jones not fighting Chael Sonnen, yet nobody seems to care that Rousey is holding up this fight over five pounds. I am real curious to see how she reacts now that Santos has publicly said she’d meet Rousey’s 135 pound demand.
More to come I am sure.
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I don't usually comment on blogs/stories but I keep seeing you and others comparing the Jones/Sonnen situation to this 1…I'm not 1 of the people bashing Jones for not taking the fight…I understand why he didn't(and don't blame him as he had everything to lose)..But Jones(the Champ) wasn't asked to drop/add weight to face Sonnen(challenger)..I totally agree with Rousey if Cyborg wants to fight the champ she's the 1 that should drop weight and meet the champ..In no way should the challenger dictate what weight the fight should be at..Now if it was the other way around and Cyborg was the Champ and Rousey was the challenger then yes Rousey should add the few pounds..Now If Cyborg was 135lbs and stepped up as sonnen did and rousey declined as jones did,then you can say its the same..And before you say that Cyborg was the Champ and no 1 beat her,Yes you may be right,but she she shouldn't of cheated and got stripped..but in NO way is it the same as Jones/Sonnen