Ronda Rousey and Cris “Cyborg” Justino have long been rivals in the MMA world despite never facing each other.
Cyborg dominated the Strikeforce women’s featherweight division from 2009-2010 before Rousey took over in 2011. The Brazilian fighter, who is 12-1 (with one no contest) in her pro MMA career, tested positive for steroids following her Dec. 17, 2011 win over Hiroko Yamanaka. She disappeared for a year and a half while she cleaned up, giving Rousey the chance to take over as the biggest name in the sport.
Rousey became the face of women’s MMA and ran through her competition to the point that many have called for her to fight Cyborg. Though Rousey is not afraid to fight Justino, she is always more than willing to rip the cheater. Two years ago, Rousey said that Cyborg was a dick and has a dick. In April, she called Cyborg an “it.”
Rousey spoke with the Brazilian media in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday and took some time to lay into Cyborg again. Rousey said she would be willing to fight Cyborg but says the steroids user’s only strength as a fighter is her strength, which is obtained through unnatural means.
“She was fighting, it was a while ago, and she just got dropped five times in a match. And really, to be honest, I haven’t been really too impressed with her actual skill set,” Rousey said via MMAFighting.com. “It’s only her strength that she draws off.”
Rousey then went on to say that Cyborg is not technically proficient as a fighter.
“The mistakes that she makes technically are absolutely terrible and basic. The only reason why she gets away with it is because of her strength, and people don’t realize how strong I actually am. Ask the girls that I’ve fought. They weren’t expecting this. Because I don’t look like it, it doesn’t mean I don’t have it.
“She doesn’t have any feeling in her punches, she pushes her punches. She can’t knock people out with one punch, she just overwhelms them,” she added. “My pace, nobody can overwhelm me. And the way that she is on the ground, it’s absolute horrendous. And her distance is absolute horrendous. The only thing that she has is pace and power, and I have pace, precision and power.”
Rousey also said Cyborg was going to fight in the UFC but bailed as soon as she found out fighters would be subjected to random drug testing. Rousey believes Cyborg has avoided dropping down from 145 pounds to 135 because she knows it would be difficult to dope and drop the weight.
Even though Rousey knows many people will cheat, she says she will always be clean and it will feel more satisfying to beat them despite being at a disadvantage.
“The reason why people dope is because they lack self-confidence. The reason why [Cyborg] was using steroids is because that girl does not believe that the best that she has is good enough, and that will always be there in her mind. And you know what, she’s right. The best that she has isn’t good enough, even on drugs.”
“You know what, you can have every advantage in the world over me, you can have better funding, you can have a better program, be on all the drugs in the world, but I’m gonna be good enough to beat you despite of it.”
Rousey has a big mouth and people dislike her for that, but it’s hard not to love those comments. How can you not root for someone with that attitude?
[Also see: Whom will Ronda Rousey fight next?]
