Ronda vs Borg ain't happening ever
Yep. This.
If they both dropped out, we would be looking at Conor v Edgar @ AT&T and Rousey v Tate rescheduled for UFC 196/197 or possibly 200.
People just do not understand how Ronda works. She is a lifelong competitor that realizes, or at the very least thinks, winning is everything. It is not that she is afraid of Cyborg the person, rather, it is that she knows competing against Cyborg the odds are not stacked heavily in her favor....say 60/40 opposed to 95/5 or greater. As AS, Fedor taught us, a loss is absolutely devastating to the career in someone that is perceived to be superhuman. A smart business person, like GSP, is in the habit of cultivating this superhuman image as it simply equates to dollar signs.
A huge indicator for this was not only Rousey telling us on the Rogan podcast, but her career in Judo. She tried for success at 138, did not make it, and then went up to the easier/less populated MW division where she won a bronze medal. UFC wants this fight, but Ronda doesn't, at least not at this time while Cyborg is still relatively young, dominant and dangerous. She is such a scary prospect that Ronda can do nothing but label her as a steroid head to help ease her thoughts and explain Cyborg's incredible dominance (the ego always does this with elite craftsmen).
Take this recent incident with Cyborg and her management being offered the fight @ 135. Clearly, the UFC offered the fight to Cyborg before checking with Ronda. Cyborg agreed and Ronda did not. Ronda was banking on Cyborg not taking the fight at 135 and thus, she called Cyborg out in the media, hoping it would appear cowardice and steroid use on Cyborg's behalf, for not taking the fight. She tried to kill two birds with one stone and the situation blew up, the only thing left to do was call Cyborg a liar. UFC is not in the habit of making their most dominant champ look bad and so they claimed they never offered the fight to Cyborg. Case closed, book shut and totally in keeping with what Ronda has said and fans have suspected.
The story that no one is talking about here is what type of mental edge will Cyborg have when they fight? Cyborg, at this point, must have a huge advantage, like a predator stalking it's prey. This circus has been going on for nearly half a decade and when/if Ronda finally has to face the music, one has to wonder how much her mental game will be impacted while facing the fighter that was responsible for her dropping to 135 and all the success that followed suit.
Luke Thomas hit the nail on the head: the only legitimate reason for this fight not happening is Ronda simply does not want it....and, that is just fine. But,
lets call a spade a spade here and not put blame where it is not warranted. If Ronda doesn't want to fight Cyborg, I am fine with that, but please let the history books remember this for what it was. Just as Tyson purposefully stayed clear of Riddick Bowe, despite living a mile from each other, Ronda and her team are staying clear of Cyborg until she can retire or feels the odds are well enough in her favor that she has a low risk high reward endeavor on her hands.
