A fight between UFC women's bantamweight champion "Rowdy" Ronda Rousey and Cristiane "Cyborg" Justino could be inching closer. According to reports, Justino's next fight under the Invicta FC will be at bantamweight.
Justino's opponent hasn't been determined yet, but if she's able to win the bout Invicta FC president Shannon Knapp will not keep her from facing the UFC star. In fact, she predicted early this year that Justino would eventually square off with Rousey.
@mmaencyclopedia the new TUF strawweight show will break all the former TUF show records. @criscyborg will drop to 135lb & challenge Ronda.
— Shannon Knapp (@shanknapp) January 7, 2014
A major hurdle for making a Rousey-Cyborg fight happen will be Justino's previous use of performance enhancing drugs. The nasty public spats the two fighters have engaged in tend to stem from Rousey making comments about Justino's past PED use.
UFC president Dana White has been very vocal about how getting involved with Justino could damage the brand. "She's a nightmare in every way shape and form to bring in as a professional athlete in an organization like this," White said in May. He didn't rule out the possibility though, following up that statement by saying "I'm not saying it could never be done."
Rousey's comments were far more inflammatory. "I've said before, I don't care if she's injecting horse semen into her eyeballs, I'll fight her, but that's just my personal decision," Rousey said.
"But I can't make a decision for the whole division. I can't say it's the right thing. This girl has been on steroids for so long and [has been] injecting herself for so long that she's not even a woman anymore. She's an 'it.' It's not good for the women's division. It's not good at all."
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