White: Women’s featherweight division coming, with or without Cyborg

There was a time when boxing has eight weight divisions and eight champions, and a fan might well be able to recite the linear heavyweight champion back to John L. Sullivan. Last year at one point boxing recognized 74 different world champions, and four vacant titles, in 17 weight divisions, from the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO alone. Add in the IBO and WBF and it’s over 100 champions.

UFC president is profoundly mindful of boxing history and has long been loathe to add new divisions. The presence of Ronda Rousey inspired him to add a women’s bantamweight division. Then he added women’s strawweight, realizing that women flyweights could move up to 135 or down to 115, effectively capturing the best fighters from several divisions. Now, during an interview with FOX Sports Australia, White said the UFC will be adding a women’s featherweight division.

The league has a contract with Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos. The plan was to slowly drop to 135 for a fight with the then seemingly undefeatable Ronda Rousey. Rousey of course lost, and Cyborg struggled perilously to reach even a catchweight of 140.

Cyborg was offered a title fight in the new division, but she declined, citing the need to recover from the last cut. White says the new division is coming, ready or not.

“She was offered two fights, at 145 pounds, she turned them both down,” said White. “The first fight, she said she only had eight weeks and that wasn’t enough time to make 145 pounds. And then she gave no reason for the second time.

“But the answer is yes. The answer is yes – we’re going to make a 145-pound division, whether it’s with Cyborg or not.”

In 2014 when the UFC determined to add a new women’s strawweight division they got 11 fighters from Invicta FC. Claudia Gadelha couldn’t stay on weight and was dropped, Juliana Lima had insufficient English and was dropped, and Paige VanZant was too young and was dropped. Eight other fighters were added via tryouts, leaving 16 for a tournament.

The pattern may repeat again. Invicta FC featherweights include:
Cristiane Justino (C) 15-1 BRA
Daria Ibragimova 9-2 RUS
Cindy Dandois Battlecat 7-2 BEL
Charmaine Tweet 6-5 CAN
Megan Anderson 7-2 AUS
Latoya Walker 5-0 USA
Faith Van Duin 5-2 NZL
Peggy Morgan 4-4 USA
Fiona Muxlow 6-3 USA
Amanda Bell 3-2 USA
Maria Hougard-Djursaa 5-6 DEN
Tamikka Brents 2-2 USA
Amber Leibrock 1-0 USA
Amy Coleman 2-0 USA
Andria Wawro 3-2 USA
Jessamyn Duke 3-4 USA
Marina Shafir 1-2 MDA