Tipped to be the next to take on Cris Cyborg, American judoka Ronda Rousey has made it known that she’s excited about having the chance to face the Brazilian, even after Cris’s knockout win in just 16 seconds last weekend.
“I really would like to fight her, and I think it would be easy for her to drop weight if she agrees to it, but that’s up to her,” Ronda told Yahoo Sports editor Dave Meltzer.
It happens that Ronda, although having fought at featherweight, has dropped to bantamweight in pursuit of Miesha Tate’s title, while Cyborg has trouble making the featherweight limit—nothing keeping the fight from happening at featherweight, though.
Now the 24-year-old Ronda has reason to be confident. A bronze medalist at the Beijing Olympics and silver medalist at the 2007 World Championship in Rio, she has won all seven of her MMA fights by submission—four of them professional.
Cris Cyborg has also agreed to test her ground game against the stalwart judo stylist. “For this fight [against Ronda] I’ll have to make a major effort to make it to bantamweight. Perhaps I’ll take a fight at a catch weight [between bantam and featherweight] first to adapt and later make it to the right weight. But I’ll make an effort to do so,” said Cyborg.
For the time being, Ronda’s next mission is to try and get her hands on bantamweight champion Miesha Tate’s belt.
To Strikeforce president Scott Coker, the fight between Cris and Ronda will be made—but further down the road. “Ronda Rousey’s name has been on the rise, but I feel she’ll fight awhile longer at bantamweight, even though she has expressed interest in fighting for the featherweight title some time,” he said. “Now Cris Cyborg has signed for four more fights, and we’re scouring the planet for worthy opponents to challenge her at middleweight, but that’s no easy task. She’s the Mike Tyson of female MMA,” said Coker in praise.
