Miesha Tate Willing To Fight Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino At A Catchweight
There have always been a ton of complications surrounding a potential fight between former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and Cris “Cyborg” Justino. But, those same complications aren’t surrounding a possible fight between “Cyborg” and the new UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Miesha Tate.
Before winning the women’s bantamweight championship, Tate said that she’d be willing to fight “Cyborg” at a catchweight, and now that she’s the champion, her mind hasn’t changed.
During a fan Q&A at the Brisbane Event Centre, Tate was asked if she’d still be willing to fight “Cyborg” at a catchweight if the Invicta star made her way to the UFC, and the women’s bantamweight champ said that she’d still be willing to fight “Cyborg” at 140 pounds.
“Yeah, man. I don’t know. I’ve been hearing rumors or something that supposedly she’s coming to the UFC. But I’ve been hearing it for such a long time, I just don’t really know and I haven’t had that confirmed.
“But I am open to that fight, maybe doing a catchweight at 140 pounds. I have nothing but respect for ‘Cyborg.'”
There are rumors that Cris “Cyborg” will make her UFC debut at UFC 198 in May. The show will be taking place in Curitiba, Brazil, and, as of this writing, it’ll be headlined by Anderson “The Spider” Silva vs. Uriah “Prime Time” Hall.
Some are thinking that Cat Zingano, who was last seen at UFC 184 in February of last year, where she lost to Ronda Rousey in just 14-seconds, will be “Cyborg’s” opponent this coming May. If Zingano were to fight “Cyborg,” the fight would take place at 145 pounds, instead of Zingano’s normal weight-class of 135.
The UFC doesn’t have a 145-pound women’s division at the moment. So, bringing in “Cyborg” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But, she does have the potential to draw a whole lot of money for the UFC, and they are paying her big money to fight in Invicta, which isn’t drawing a lot of money at the moment. So, it’s likely that the UFC wants to bring her in to the company just to see how much money they can make with her.
Miesha Tate may not fight again until November, which is when the former women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey is expected to return. Rousey was originally supposed to return and fight Holly Holm, but Holm wanted to stay active, and it ended up costing her the bantamweight title, and possibly a whole lot of money.
Holm has said that she wants to fight Tate one more time before Rousey returns, but Tate has said that she doesn’t know who she’ll end up fighting next. She has wanted another crack at Ronda Rousey, so it’s extremely likely that she’ll sit on the sidelines until Rousey decides to return, because if she fights before then, and loses her title, she may not ever get a third fight with Rousey.
If the UFC does want to do Tate vs. “Cyborg” at a catchweight at some point this year, then they could do it at UFC 200 if everything works out. It’s likely that the UFC would want to have a women’s division fight on what’s expected to be their biggest pay-per-view of all-time, and right now, with Ronda Rousey out of the picture, there may be no bigger women’s fight than Miesha Tate vs. Cris “Cyborg” Justino.
As of right now, the UFC is really hoping that Miesha Tate will wait for the return of Ronda Rousey before she steps inside the octagon again. So, there’s a really good chance that the new UFC women’s bantamweight champ will sit it out until November, and then maybe she’ll consider fighting “Cyborg” after her third bout with Rousey.
[Featured image via Rey Del Rio/Getty Images]
