This Saturday night in Brazil, you will get the opportunity to watch arguably the best women’s mixed martial artist ever “compete” in the main event at UFC Fight Night 95 against a severely overmatched opponent. If you’ve seen the betting line at Several Bookmakers for the 140-pound catchweight bout between Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino and Lina Lansberg, you know exactly how lopsided this matchup truly is and why it’s disrespectful to MMA fans, bettors and the fighters themselves who know it will be over quickly. Cyborg definitely deserves better, and the main problem is that nobody will fight her, especially at 140 pounds. The UFC does not allow any other fighter on the roster to fight exclusively at catchweight, something that is very revealing in light of Ronda Rousey’s continued absence from the Octagon. In fact, Cyborg recently called out Rousey for being a bad role model in an interview at TMZ.com following the lone loss of her career to Holly Holm via second-round knockout at UFC 193 last Nov. 15. She said Rousey is sending a bad message and that you can’t just quit when you lose, as the former women’s bantamweight champion is not expected to return to action until the end of 2016 at the earliest. While Cyborg certainly raises valid points about Rousey, what kind of a message is the UFC sending in allowing her to continue to fight at 140 pounds? I fully support Cyborg being in the UFC, but there either should be a new division created at a higher weight class, or she needs to be able to make 135 pounds. The UFC is simply trying to capitalize on the most marketable active female fighter around on her own terms with Rousey out rather than provide the blueprint for her long-term future in the organization. The UFC is apparently still holding out hope that Rousey will come back, win the belt back and want to fight Cyborg by the end of next year. With that seemingly a longshot, what’s next for Cyborg? And what’s the point of lining up more women for her to beat up in the meantime? In my opinion, the UFC is sending a bad message here.
