Rogan calls for new UFC women’s division

The UFC had a plan for Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino to drop to 135 and challenge the then seemingly unbeatable Ronda Rousey. Along the way, Justino was to have a catchweight fight or two, then a fight at bantamweight, and then a title shot.

The UFC signed Cyborg, and paid her purse, whether she defended her title at 145 in Invicta, or dropped for catchweights fights in the UFC.

However, Rousey lost, and the belt went from being unbeatable to unkeepable, with four champions in eight months. The need for a credible challenge is over.

Never the less, Cyborg’s last two UFC fights were at catchweights. The first was against Leslie Smith, who lost fighting for the Invicta flyweight title, and then moved up to 135 to get in the UFC, where she went 2-2, before fighting the greatest fighter in the history of women’s mixed martial arts. While Smith’s courage is tremendous, the fight itself was not entirely rational, and ended in 81 seconds.

Cyborg’s second fight, on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 95, was against Sweden’s unheralded Lina Lansberg, a bantamweight who wasn’t even in the UFC at the time. Lansberg absolutely looked like she belongs in the UFC, taking Cyborg into the second round, about the same length of time as Cybrog’s previous four fights combined.

Afterwards Lansberg declared that the fight had been “fun.”

But in order to make the two catchweight fights, Cyborg went through a weight cutting process that appears cruel. The sport suffers from a culture of extreme weight cutting, and is trying to move beyond it. Cyborg’s weight cuts feel out-of-date, unnecessary, and even irresponsible.

UFC color commentator Joe Rogan offered a solution in a series of tweets – add a 145 women’s division to the UFC.

.@ufc please open up a 145lbs division for @criscyborg. Her torturing herself to make 140 is insane and she's incredibly entertaining.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 25, 2016

“>@ufc please open up a 145lbs division for

.@ufc please open up a 145lbs division for @criscyborg. Her torturing herself to make 140 is insane and she’s incredibly entertaining.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 25, 2016

“>@criscyborg. Her torturing herself to make 140 is insane and she’s incredibly entertaining.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan)

.@ufc please open up a 145lbs division for @criscyborg. Her torturing herself to make 140 is insane and she’s incredibly entertaining.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 25, 2016

“>September 25, 2016

Women's MMA is growing in leaps and bounds and it would be amazing if there were more weight classes.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 25, 2016

“>September 25, 2016

.@ufc please open up a 145lbs division for @criscyborg. Her torturing herself to make 140 is insane and she's incredibly entertaining.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 25, 2016

“>@UFC opened up more WMMA divisions the level of talent in each division would grow like it has in new men’s divisions.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan)

I think that if the @UFC opened up more WMMA divisions the level of talent in each division would grow like it has in new men’s divisions.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 25, 2016

“>September 25, 2016

.@ufc please open up a 145lbs division for @criscyborg. Her torturing herself to make 140 is insane and she's incredibly entertaining.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 25, 2016

“>@criscyborg is a killer and would be a fierce champion.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan)

The level of talent in each division seems to rise to the standard of the champion. @criscyborg is a killer and would be a fierce champion.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 25, 2016

“>September 25, 2016

.@ufc please open up a 145lbs division for @criscyborg. Her torturing herself to make 140 is insane and she's incredibly entertaining.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 25, 2016

“>@UFC is awesome and it’ll all get sorted out eventually. I just had to chirp. I hate hard weight cuts

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan)

Obviously this is all just my opinion. @UFC is awesome and it’ll all get sorted out eventually. I just had to chirp. I hate hard weight cuts

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 25, 2016

“>September 25, 2016

Joe Rogan is right. Making Cris Cyborg endure these cuts is wrong.