It’s probably not fair to second-guess the UFC, since they more often than not know what they are doing. You don’t take an entity worth nothing and build it into a $4 billion product without knowing what time it is. But that’s not to say that the company doesn’t slip up from time to time while running the biggest mixed martial arts promotion on the planet. And that is definitely the case in their handling of Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino.
Cyborg is a rare thing – a certifiable star in the sport, capable of headlining UFC cards (like this weekend’s in Brasilia, for instance). Some have even likened her to Mike Tyson in his prime, in her ability to steamroll overmatched opponents, and in the process, attract a disproportionate number of eyeballs to her fights. She is without debate the greatest women’s featherweight fighter ever, and arguably the greatest women’s fighter of all time. Since losing her first professional fight in 2005, she hasn’t lost since, (T)KOing all her victims, except two that went to decision. She’s the type of fighter a promotion can build a whole weight class around, like the UFC did with Ronda Rousey in the 135-pound division. So why is Cyborg fighting an unknown at 140-pounds this weekend?
That’s the question most of the MMA world is asking. Why is the UFC forcing Cris Cyborg to almost kill herself to get down to 140 pounds to fight a no name? If she’s a big enough star to headline a UFC event against a fighter no one has heard of, she is also a big enough star to create a featherweight division around. And the positive waves that such a move would cause would be substantial. As the title of this article hints at, the suggestion here is if you create a women’s featherweight division in the UFC, with a championship belt up for grabs and a star like Cyborg in the ranks, big name women fighters will flock to the division.
Just like on the men’s side, where fighters jump weight classes frequently, the same would occur with the ladies. The move from bantamweight to featherweight wouldn’t be much of a stretch for the vast majority of the women currently fighting at 135 pounds (most of them are cutting weight to get down to that limit as it is). That weight class is also currently packed with stars, such as Ronda Rousey (who started her career fighting at featherweight), Miesha Tate, and Holly Holm, not to mention current champ Amanda Nunes. There’s only one belt to go around at 135 pounds, so if one of these ladies (or anyone else fighting at bantamweight) thinks the path to gold would be shorter at featherweight, they are bound to jump up there. And any of these names going up against Cyborg would be a PPV-worthy headlining fight.
Which brings us back to our original question – why is the UFC so hesitant to do this? They were wary to open up their ranks to the ladies for years, but once they bit the bullet was the best move they ever did, leading us to two star-packed women’s weight classes that house some of the sport’s biggest stars. The same would definitely occur at featherweight. And they have a big name star in Cyborg currently in their hands that they are totally misusing. They have a Ferrari sitting in the garage that they are only taking out for short drives to the grocery store, instead of opening her up on the highway and putting the pedal to the metal.
If you build it, they will come. So hurry up and do it already, UFC.
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