Lol no one ducked Cyborg. Dana had multiple natural 135ers like Nunes and Holmes fight Cyborg at 145 where Cyborg had the advantage. Some ducking lol
Cyborg herself fought lighter than 145 so that's a dumb argument
Sure. The she used peds to bulk up to 145, refused to drop any of that weight, and spent the rest of her career calling out smaller fighters.
She was optimized for FW just like Ronda was optimized for BW. That's why Cyborg called her out at 140 for years but Ronda hid behind the 135 barrier. We see all kinds of champs moving up to challenge the champion of the next weight class but Ronda didn't even have to go up a full weight class to participate in what would have been the biggest WMMA fight ever, all she had to do is not cut an additional 5 pounds but she was too scared.
This is a pretty dishonest way to frame it. Again, Cyborg started her career smaller then used peds and put on a lot of weight and refused to ever take any of it off. Ronda wasn't the only fighter that knew she was on the sauce and had no desire to go up and fight someone insisting on a weight advantage. None of the girls Cyborg was calling out had a FW frame. And many of them rightfully had no interest in going up to fight her. There's literally nobody else of note at FW.
I think it's dishonest to think that no one else was on anything prior to USADA, and to use that as an excuse not to fight is probably pretty hypocritical for a lot of them, especially Ronda.
What were Cyborgs other ways to win? She wasn’t subbing Nunes and it’s not like Cyborg was some kind of point fighting master. Not to say that she COULDNT have won a decision but I don’t think she was really any more likely than Amanda to win one, she only had 3 decision wins up to that point. Two of them were very early on in her career and the other was against Holm who isn’t really known to push the pace. So while I know Amanda has had gas tank issues I don’t think Cris was on much better footing than her in that department.
I'm not sure Cris Cyborg had ever fought someone who had actual KO power before. Why play it safe defensively in anyway if you've never really been in danger? Period.
Do you think instead of going in guns blazing that a patient Cyborg would have beaten Nunes?
Or do you think Amanda had completely surpassed Cyborgs skillset and was better everywhere regardless of Cyborgs gameplan? Cyborgs ground game can be brutal when she uses it
The fact that I’ve seen Amanda break and fold several times.
If cyborg wanted the fight all she had to do was cut a little more but she didn’t want to go off the juice and give up the unnatural size and muscular strength she has. Without a Ronda vs Cyborg fight Ronda is an all time great and Cyborg is a juiced can crusher with a resume full of smaller fighters.
Who did Ronda crush that wasn't a can? UFC 135 was stacked with cans. In fact as soon as some competent strikers came along, she lost in devastating fashion and quit. Cyborg is herself a devastating striker who has a legit ground game which is Ronda's undoing. Remember how Cyborg worked Holly over the course of 5 rounds? Cyborg would have done to Ronda what Holly did to Ronda except perhaps even more savagely. Ronda had very good reason to avoid Cyborg like the plague and the Holm and Nunes fights show why.
Holly is a 135 fighter so thanks for proving my point.
Actually she fought three times at 145 in the UFC and of course spent her entire boxing career at welterweight and light middleweight (147-154) but...so what was your point? I forgot.
I think the cut to 135 is hard on Amanda, I could be wrong here but I don’t recall her having cardio issues at 145. Even at bantamweight her biggest issues came against strong grapplers who wore her down, outside of Peña which occured years later.
Exactly.
