Rousey: Cyborg embarrassed MMA, WMMA, and her country
Ronda Rousey: “She really embarrassed not just women’s MMA and the sport, she embarrassed her country, as well. I’m happy to set it straight.”
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey recently did a media tour in Brazil and responded to questions about Cris Justino.
Justino appeared recently on Submission Radio and said Rousey had run from a fight with her. Justino also referred obliquely to her positive 2011 test for stanozolol as “my mistake.”
“When I was Strikeforce champ she was in my weight class at 145 and she ran to 135 so she cannot fight me,” said Cyborg. “She’s trying to use my mistake saying, ‘Ah she don’t want to be in the UFC because of heavy doping tests,’ but she’s lying because I don’t go to the UFC because I have to cut for 135 and at the time when I talked to the UFC I wasn’t not ready for this.
“I think she keeps talking and keeps running and I think if I make 135 she cannot run anymore, because everybody, all the fans want to watch the fight and I think the only way for this fight to happen and to make her shut up is to make 135.”
Justino has a fight scheduled at 135 at Invicta FC 10 on Dec. 4. UFC president Dana White has said if Justino demonstrates she can dependably make 135 (presumably two fights) then he will sign her to face Rousey.
Rousey scoffed at the notion that she had run from Justino, and described her potential opponent as an embarrassment to mixed martial arts, to WMMA, and to her country.
“I’m the champion,” said Rousey via Combate, as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMAFighting. “I fight whoever comes up. She’s the one who has options, not me. I’m exactly where I was when she left and she can come back and give it a try anytime. She’ll get what she deserves. She really embarrassed not just women’s MMA and the sport, she embarrassed her country, as well. I’m happy to set it straight.”
“She says she so ‘desperately’ wants it. Then how come the day after they announced out-of-competition drug testing in the UFC she asked to be released? If you so desperately wanted a fight you would come fight me, not run away. I think she’s saying one thing and doing another. I’ve always been here. I’m not going anywhere.”
Rousey fights #1 contender Cat Zingano on Jan. 3 at UFC 182 in Las Vegas, Nevada.