Three years, Cris “Cyborg” versus Ronda Rousey was the most talked about super fight in mixed martial arts. At the time, Ronda Rousey was the first and reigning UFC Bantamweight Champion. Having finished all of her fights in the first round, she had dominated her challengers with such ease that she was thought to be unstoppable in her division.
Cyborg was much the same in her division. Though she had one loss, she had vanquished all of her following foes with relative ease. Furthermore, she regularly competed in combat sports outside of mixed martial arts, and she either won medals or fought in championship fights.
Simply put: no one thought anyone could beat Ronda but Cyborg, and no one thought anyone could be Cyborg but Ronda. They were neck and neck for the title of Queen of MMA, and a super fight between them could have determined who was the greatest female mixed martial artist of all time.
Sadly, this super fight will probably never happen. Not only was Ronda’s untouchable status shattered when she was beaten decisively not once, but twice; but she seems to be more interested in pursuing a career in professional wrestling than she does in mixed martial arts. Who could blame her? The pay is much better and she’ll almost certainly suffer fewer injuries.
Cyborg, however, still seems occupied with the question of whether or not she could have beaten Ronda. In an interview yesterday on The MMA Hour, the reigning UFC Featherweight Champion told host Ariel Helwani that a win over Holly Holm — the first woman to beat Rousey and the woman Cyborg will be defending her Featherweight title against at UFC 219 — will be the same as a win over Ronda.
To wit:
All the fights in my career are important and having a lot of fights is special to me. Fighting Gina Carano, my first fight at 145. I think each fight is a challenge for me and I think when I fight Holly and beat Holly, I am going to beat Ronda at the same time.
Check out Cris Cyborg’s full interview below:
