One-woman demolition crew Cristiane Justino is on the hunt for some big-name opponents for more UFC catchweight bouts.
The devastating knockout artist entered into the UFC as the Invicta featherweight champion, but since there’s no room for female 145-ers in the big leagues, she has been exclusively taking prize-fights at 140 lbs for the UFC.
Boasting 13 knockouts from 15 wins prior to signing that UFC contract, Cyborg was considered by many to be the pound-for-pound greatest female fighter in MMA, and what she has achieved in 2016 has only strengthened that claim.
After scoring a monstrous TKO victory over Leslie Smith in her promotional debut at UFC 198, Cyborg was elevated to headliner status for her sophomore bout against Lina Lansberg at UFC Brasilia.
Although she took a little longer to end this contest, Cyborg did not disappoint in her second UFC bout, scoring her 15th knockout victory of her career. Referee Mario Yamasaki called the fight to a halt at 2:29 of the second round, when Justino pummelled her opponent with a series of hard elbows and right hands following a well-worked takedown.
.@criscyborg dominates a tough @linalansberg in their #UFCBrasilia main event. 🇧🇷💪 https://t.co/cyAXVAoF84
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) September 25, 2016
Although she has been very vocal in her call for the promotion to introduce a women’s featherweight division so that she wouldn’t have to endure another tough cut, Cyborg sang a very different tune at the post-fight press conference..
“I never choose opponents. I always train and wait for them to choose for me. To fight against a top 10, I won’t cut down to 135 and they won’t want to fight at 145, so I will cry to make 140 and they will eat some pizza to make 140 and we put on a fight for the fans. Who knows, maybe we’ll do the fight that everybody wants with Ronda (Rousey).”
