Looks like the heavily anticipated superfight between UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and former Strikeforce women’s featherweight title holder Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos just isn’t destined to be.
On the most recent edition of Inside MMA, UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz, Cyborg’s manager, said he has asked the UFC to release his most marketable client. His reason is largely due to the company’s insistence to have her fight Rousey at 135-pounds.
“Right now we're waiting for the UFC to release her. We've asked for the UFC to release her. I talked to Dana [White] yesterday. They gave an offer, I went to Cyborg, she said she didn't want to do it. So we just asked for her release,” he explained.
“If they're not having a 145-pound weight class, what else can she do? So as of now she's going to be released and maybe we'll go look somewhere else.”
Both White and Ortiz have acknowledged that having Santos make the bantamweight limit would be quite difficult, yet still possible, with the UFC even trying to have nutritional guru, Mike Dolce, help the bulky female fighter make the weight cut.
However, based on his most recent comments, Ortiz seems to have given up any hope of Santos making 135-pounds.
“She says ‘I would love to do a three fight deal, fourth fight would be against Ronda. Let's get it done at 140. Not be a fight for 135 pound championship. Do it at 140.’
“For her to get down to 135-pounds is physically impossible...for a woman. For a man it's a lot more possible because we have a lot more water weight to take off.”
Santos is rumored to walk around north of 170-pounds, though many have written off her resistance to fight at bantamweight as more proof that she has been using performance-enhancing drugs for years.
The muscle-bound Cyborg tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol after knocking out Hiroko Yamanaka in Dec. 2011. As a result, the California State Athletic Commission suspended Santos for a year and fined her $2,500.
Will Santos vs. Rousey ever come true or is it simply another fantasy fight that has no chance of coming to fruition?