If the UFC didn't want to give Cyborg the shot at 135, why sign her with the only hurdle to her title shot being she has to make weight once in Invicta and beat the shit out of some poor 120 lb can that has no chance against her?
If the UFC's goal has been to protect Ronda from big bad Cyborg then signing Cyborg to that deal was a pretty fucking stupid thing to do.
What we're seeing right now is the final dying throes of the 2013 Tito Ortiz plan for Cyborg's career that has basically gone down in flames. He thought by pulling Cyborg out of her UFC contract, going to Invicta, and putting their belt on her and waiting a year or two, he could create the monetary value and negotiating leverage for Cyborg to fight in the UFC at 145 or catchweight, make tons of money and create a Champion vs Champion scenario with Ronda. This plan assumed fans would quickly become ambivalent about Ronda and the UFC would need Cyborg to drum up interest in women's MMA fighting. Instead the exact opposite has happened:
1. Every Ronda PPV sells more than the previous one and they just sold somewhere around a million buys with her vs a complete nobody.
2. The UFC, although they would
like to have a Rousey/Cyborg fight,
they don't need it. Over the next year and a half, they could do Tate, Nunes, Holm, Pena, and Zingano II at a million buys a pop and get along just fine well into 2017.
3. The UFC out maneuvered Cyborg and probably made more money off her fights than Cyborg did considering they acquired the broadcast rights to her fights and get $10 a month from Invicta fans to subscribe to Fight Pass.
So Cyborg is left right where she was in 2013. Little value, no negotiating leverage and calling up a nutritionist to talk about 135lbs. Oh and tweeting about Ronda. Always the tweeting about Ronda.
