Star search
‘Cyborg’ can become UFC’s new female face
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Cris “Cyborg” Justino finally gets her chance to win a UFC title Saturday night at UFC 214, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the promotion.
From Ronda Rousey to Holly Holm to Miesha Tate to Amanda Nunes, female fighters have headlined several profitable UFC cards in recent years. But Tate announced her retirement after losing during UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden, while Rousey essentially is retired after losing to Holm and Nunes and fading into seclusion.
Holm won recently to end a three-fight losing streak, while Nunes, the current UFC women’s bantamweight champion, lost some fan appeal for pulling out of her title defense at UFC 213 against No. 1-ranked contender Valentina Shevchenko despite medical clearance to compete.
Enter Cyborg. Already considered by many to be the best female MMA fighter ever, the Brazilian challenges Tonya Evinger for the UFC’s recently created women’s featherweight championship at the Honda Center. It’s one of three title fights on the UFC 214 pay-per-view card headlined by the much-anticipated rematch between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones for the light heavyweight title.
The women’s 145-pound championship became vacant when the inaugural champion, Germaine de Randamie of the Netherlands, was stripped of the belt for refusing to fight Cyborg, citing anti-doping issues.
Cyborg has tested positive for banned substances in the past and was given a therapeutic-use exemption to settle questions surrounding a more recent questionable test.
“I don’t regret anything,” de Randamie told the MMA Hour. “I stand for my principles.”
Taking that stance cost de Randamie the belt that Cyborg covets. A former Invicta FC and Strikeforce featherweight champion, Cyborg whipped Leslie Smith and Lina Lansberg in 140-pound catch-weight fights on UFC cards. Potential fights with Rousey or anyone else in the UFC’s bantamweight division never materialized because Cyborg said she couldn’t make the 135-pound weight limit. At 145 pounds, she feels at full strength.
A devastating striker with a brown belt in jiu-jitsu, she lost her first MMA fight in 2005, but has won 17 straight and hasn’t gone the distance since 2008.
“I’m glad to be back in my division,” she said this week. “It’s changed my mood. Every day I train happy, and my team is happy with me. Saturday night is going to be my day.” The UFC is in need of some star power. Men’s lightweight champion Conor McGregor is focused on his Aug. 26 boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. That’s good for McGregor, who will make millions, but bad for the UFC’s lightweight division, which must wait for when and if Irishman returns to the Octagon.
Jones will try to regain his pay-per-view appeal and the UFC light heavyweight title when he challenges Cormier, the champion. Jones had been a proven star, but per- sonal issues caused him to be stripped of his title and he has fought just once in the past two years.
His absence from the Octagon has birthed a hunger to get back to being a star attraction again. He already has expressed an interest in fighting Brock Lesnar sometime soon in what would be a mega event.
“It’s been great to take a step back and realize how much this sport means to me and how much this position means to me,” Jones said. “I feel like a much better version of myself. I feel rejuvenated.”
While Holm and Nunes reestablish themselves and Shevchenko tries to win a title, Cyborg will carry the torch for women’s MMA if she wins Saturday night, even though she’s reluctant to be viewed that way. The more the merrier is her thinking. The UFC women’s strawweight division is talented, headed by personable champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk of Poland.
“It’s not about one face only,” Cyborg said. “When you make it about one face and she leaves, you miss it.”
Right now, the UFC needs Cyborg as much as Cyborg needs the UFC.