Cyborg's world: Does the UFC need a women's 145-pound division?
The world's most dominant female MMA fighter has provided the UFC with a conundrum.
Over the past 11 years, Cris Cyborg has been on one of the most impressive runs the sports has ever seen, winning 16 straight fights since losing in her professional debut. Of those 16 wins, only two opponents have made it to the final bell, none since 2008.
Her greatest adversary is a lack of competition.
That problem is not expected to change this Saturday when Cyborg meets the unheralded Lina Lansberg in the main event of UFC Fight Night 95 in Brasilia, Brazil. According to Bovada, Cyborg is a -1200 favorite heading into the bout, and that might be selling her short.
If Cyborg runs through Lansberg as expected, calls for a women's featherweight division will grow. No matter how much the UFC wants her to cut down to 135 pounds for fights with Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, or Holly Holm, it is simply not physically possible. And none of those women are particularly inclined to move up to 145 pounds to accommodate Cyborg.
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Arguments against the addition of what would essentially be the heavyweight equivalent of the female divisions typically refer to a lack of depth. Cyborg contends that the same could be said of women's bantamweight, considering that several fighters in the top 10 are all coming off losses. However, her point holds little water considering those losses are because the best of the best in that division have been taking out one another.
At 145 pounds, there is no clear pecking order despite Invicta FC and Bellator MMA doing their part to showcase the division. All you have to do is look at Cyborg's last few opponents prior to joining the UFC to see how limited the division is from a marketing standpoint. Daria Ibragimova? Faith Van Duin? Charmaine Tweet? All three of those names could have been made up, and you wouldn't have known.
The 135-pound division came in with some heat due to its inclusion in the Strikeforce promotion, and the 115-pound division was introduced through "The Ultimate Fighter." While the latter strategy might work for a third women's division, it still doesn't solve the skill gap. All one has to do is look at any number of unsightly preliminary heavyweight bouts to see how the quality of action suffers as you go up in weight.
All that said, it's absurd for Cyborg continue to make an arbitrary weight cut down to 140 pounds for catchweight bouts, as she did in her UFC debut this past May and as she will again for her fight with Lansberg. The UFC can allow her to fight at 145 pounds from now on without having to create a new division for her, as odd as that sounds.
Considering their working relationship with the all-female Invicta promotion, they could even showcase her Invicta title defenses on a UFC broadcast if officials are feeling adventurous.
What they don't have to do is bring up the rest of the 145-pound roster with her. It's possible that Cyborg may emerge as a bright shining star in her first PPV opportunity, one that an entire division can revolve around, but even if that doesn't occur she will still thrive as a special attraction for the UFC and the featherweight queen of Invicta.