Cris Cyborg Finally Makes her UFC Debut – Breaking MMA News

By JM “Shade” Daguio

Cris “Cyborg” Justino, the best female fighter outside of the UFC, will finally make her debut in UFC 198 in her hometown of Curitiba, Brazil. It is well-documented that Justino wanted to fight the best in the biggest MMA organization, she had been lobbying for a fight with former women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey since the former champ’s rise and debut in the UFC. The fighter they call “Cyborg” is known for beating top female fighters such as Marloes Coenen, Charmaine Tweet and essentially retired Gina Carano. Justino is also the current Invicta FC women’s featherweight champion and the only Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion.

She was stripped of her Strikeforce women’s featherweight title for testing positive for steriods (stanonozol), Strikeforce eventually folded to the UFC but didn’t brought Justino in due to failure of her post fight drug test and somehow lowered her stock to MMA fans, she jumped ship to Invicta FC where she laid waste to the women’s featherweight division with utter decimation, racking 5 straight wins since her suspension.

Despite Justino’s notoriety in the MMA circle as a brutal and explosive fighter (record of 15-1 (1) no-contest) she has not broken through the mainstream because the UFC was reluctant to open a 145-lbs. division; however, Zuffa, UFC’s parent company, signed Justino as part of their stable of fighters but has not commented on when she would debut. Justino wanted Rousey so badly that she was willing to cut to 135 lbs. to face the then-champ; it never came into fruition, Rousey went on to be KO’d by Holly Holm and Cyborg continued her streak in Invicta FC.

Today, however, Justino is a UFC fighter, she will face a tough vet in Leslie Smith at a catchweight of 140 lbs. In my most humble opinion – similar to the women’s strawweight division – the UFC should open a women’s featherweight division, It does not matter whether Justino will be brought in as champion or not, the fact of the matter is, a fighter like Justino, with all her berzerker style finishes, will be a draw, she can play both hero and villain in which the fans can choose and if her previous fights prove what she can do? Sky is the limit.

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