Ronda Rousey Says Cris “Cyborg” Santos is Just Trying to Stay Relevant

Ronda Rousey

Any time Ronda Rousey speaks with the media, the topic of Cris “Cyborg” Santos is brought up. Santos has recently requested to be let out of her UFC contract and a press conference is scheduled for Friday with her manager Tito Ortiz to make an announcement about her fighting future.

Rousey feels Santos is simply seeking attention in an attempt to not fade into obscurity.

“I think she’s just kind of making a lot of noise and trying to get attention because she’s kind of fading into being irrelevant,” Rousey said during a UFC 157 media conference call on Tuesday.

“She hasn’t had a recorded win in I think two years or something like that, so she needs people going on TV and making a big fuss so people will even remember her name.”

Santos took women’s MMA by storm with her aggressive style, winning the Strikeforce 145-pound title in August of 2009 by taking out the then-face of women’s MMA, Gina Carano. Santos defended her title three times before testing positive for the steroid stanozolol following a Dec. 17, 2011, bout with Hiroko Yamanaka. Santos knocked out Yamanaka is just 16 seconds, but the bout was later ruled a no-contest and Santos was suspended for a year.

While away from the sport, Rousey emerged, and a match between the two has been talked about ever since. The obstacle standing in the way of the bout coming to fruition is the fact that Santos can’t make the cut to 135 pounds. While a bout with Santos is alluring, Rousey isn’t waiting around for the former champion.

“I have a lot of options ahead of me. I have a lot of girls that I could fight, and she doesn’t have any other options besides me, so they can run around and make a bunch of noise and be a big Cryborg as much as she wants, but at some point she’s going to have to come around and take the only fight that’s available for her. In the meantime, I’m going to take the plenty of options that are available to me,” said Rousey.

Rousey makes history at UFC 157, along with Liz Carmouche. They will enter the history books as the first female fight to be held in the UFC.

So appropriately, Rousey’s focus is on Carmouche.

“I’m not spending any of my time worrying about her because Liz Carmouche is 100-percent of my attention right now. Cyborg’s not really worth my time at the moment.”

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