Cris Cyborg's UFC debut is official; will fight Leslie Smith at UFC 198

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First New York became the final state to sanction MMA, and now Cris “Cyborg” Justino has been inked for her first UFC fight.

Cyborg gets her wish and will fight in her hometown of Curitiba, Brazil, when UFC 198: Werdum vs. Miocic lands at Arena da Baixada. She will square off with Leslie Smith in a 140-pound catchweight bout.

It’s not the fight that Cyborg or her fans had been hoping for. The Invicta FC featherweight champ’s focus has long been Ronda Rousey, but that fight never materialized, as the UFC, Rousey, and Cyborg quarreled over the requirement that the fight should be at 135 pounds.

Cyborg had been trying to find a way to remain healthy and drop down to 135 pounds to make that fight happen, but after Rousey lost the UFC belt to Holly Holm and the new restriction banning intravenous fluids for rehydration was put in place, Cyborg and her team determined that she couldn’t safely cut down to the bantamweight limit.

Cris CyborgAlthough there is a still a desire for a marquis match-up with Rousey, Holm, or current champion Miesha Tate, Cyborg’s recent lobbying efforts focused on fighting anyone, as long as it was at UFC 198, which takes place at a nearly 40,000-seat capacity soccer stadium in her hometown. Without a belt on the line, the UFC accommodated her by making a 140-pound bout with Smith, in a move that will surely draw her hometown fans in droves.

Cyborg (15-1, 1 NC) last fought in January, when she defended her Invicta FC 145-pound belt by knocking out Daria Ibragimova. Despite never having fought previously in the Octagon, she is widely considered the top pound-for-pound female fighter in the world.

Smith (8-6-1) defeated Rin Nakai by decision at the recent UFC Fight Night 85 event in Brisbane, Australia. She resides in the UFC bantamweight division, but has fought as light as flyweight (125 pounds) as recently as December of 2013. She is not currently ranked amongst the top 15 fighters in the UFC women’s bantamweight rankings.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/cris-cyborgs-octagon-debut-is-a-done-deal-for-ufc-198

So she's getting a big time opponent for her Octagon debut in the form of...........uh, Leslie Smith.

ya I thought can right away when I heard who she was fighting




then I looked her up and saw her record and knew........

Plus, her natural weight is like 125; she only fights at BW because there's no 125lb division.

This is gonna be disgusting.

What is the line at Cyborg making weight?

What is the line on her not being ugly?

Still not a fan of Cyborg, big mouth, PED cheating prima dona.... nuff said.

stock wrote:

What is the line at Cyborg making weight?

And then blaming Dana and somehow Ronda for it and saying no one else is making any effort but her.

This fight is embarrassing.

can not wait for holly vs cyborg.... that will be some shit!!

So looks like Cyborg booked for her 2nd UFC appearance vs Lina Lansberg.

The anticlimactic news:
1. Against another tomato can (in the sense I've never heard of anyone on her resume). At least she's pretty much KO'd everyone, so maybe she'll bring some heat to Cyborg.
2. At a catchweight 140#.

Honestly, I don't know who at 135 would want to fight her. Just seems they'd be setting them self up for a fighter not making weight and forced into a catchweight. I'd demand in any contract that I get my full purse and win bonus if she'd pull out or not make weight before I'd sign anything. Otherwise, it just puts you in a no win situation unless you are confident you could take her out being 10 pounds heavier.

Yeah I don't know what the point of this fight even is, other that just showcasing her shitwhipping some can as a headliner in Brazil.

If they keep giving her catchweight fights against natural 135ers it's just going to give her more ammo to feed into her delusional idea that the UFC owes her a 145lb division for some reason, and she'll continue to completely fail to recognize that A)She's fighting girls who are smaller than her, so the fights are pointless and prove nothing, and B)Invicta- a promotion who's roster consists entirely of women- can't find competitive fights for her, so how in the hell does she expect the UFC to somehow have any luck in doing so?

This is fucking retarded now at this point.

The UFC is throwing another can at her?  Are you kidding?  Its laughable.

Almost as laughable as her not being able to cut 5 more lbs for health reasons.  She can kick my ass dont get me wrong, but she by now means steps up to the scale at 0 percent body fat or anything.  Make 135 or gtfo.

I don't get it. She's 2 inches shorter than me and I could make 145 (her "natural" fight weight) in 10 days in a pinch. And I am not even close to a world class athlete.

Regardless though, I don't give a shit what her reasons are. The reason actually doesn't matter at all. Shame on the UFC for not just saying, "Make weight or fight for a different organization."

Yeah and after she ragdolls this girl, she's gonna go on ahead with her same old song and dance about how she can't make 135, and the UFC should 'do the right thing" and create a 145lb division for her. Even though she's said multiple times in the past that she can and will get down to 135, only to then change her mind and say she can't, then change her mind again and say she can but she has an obligation to defend her 145lb title so she's going to focus on that, and then change her mind again and say she tried to make 135 but almost died and shame on Dana and Ronda for putting her through that. And now that Ronda is out of the picture she thinks she holds all the cards. Well she should look no further than Ronda to realize that in this game nobody holds all of the cards.
Hopefully this Lina chick starches her ass so she can get a Holm/Rousey-style reality check and get over herself a little.