Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos Signs With Invicta
Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos has signed with Invicta Fighting Championships, shortly after being released from her UFC contract.
Cyborg will make her Invicta debut during their next show on April 5.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Cyborg asked to be released from her contract because the company wanted her to drop 10 pounds to fight in the women’s 135-pound division. Cyborg, who was the 145-pound champion in Zuffa before Strikeforce was assimilated into the UFC, wanted to fight champion Ronda Rousey at 140 pounds. But Rousey, the 135-pound champion, would have been unlikely to agree to the weight gain to fight Cyborg, and the UFC would be unlikely to agree to creating a 145-pound division.
UFC president Dana White seemed confused by Cyborg’s decision to sign with Invicta, as the UFC had already offered her a contract with the fight promotion company.
“We were going to sign her to a contract and then we were going to have her fight in Invicta – which means we’d pay all the bills for her to fight in Invicta,” White said. “She’d be under a UFC contract with all the perks and benefits of being a UFC fighter, and would fight in Invicta. So instead of doing that, they chose to not do that – and fight in Invicta. If you can make logic out of that whole f***ing situation, you’re a better man than I.”
At the press conference announcing her new contract with Invicta, Cyborg weighed in at 160 pounds. Part of her decision not to drop to 135 pounds was because she, her manager Tito Ortiz, and her doctors felt it would be impossible for her to drop to 3 or 4 percent body fat from her walking around weight of 172. It was difficult enough, they said, for her to make her 145 pound weight.
“It is literally impossible for her to make that weight,” Ortiz said.
Cyborg’s last fight was a title defense match against Hiroko Yamanaka on December 17, 2011. Santos was stripped of her title and suspended after the fight because she tested positive for steroids. Her upcoming Invicta fight will be her first in almost a year and a half.
