White confirms that Cris ‘Cyborg’ was the main reason behind the UFC’s decision to create a 145 pound female division.
Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino’s much documented struggle to make weight for a catchweight fight at 140 pounds in the UFC last year highlighted the gruelling punishment fighters often endure to prepare for a bout:
“In my last weight cut I almost died. I was in the bathtub cutting weight, and I thought, ‘I will die in this bathtub.’ It was the worst weight cut in my life” said justino.
“My nutritionist George Lockhart, who, by the way, is a UFC employee, didn’t do an effective job with this birth control pill he indicated saying that would help me. But thank God, in a war, I made weight, cutting 24 pounds in a week. My body was retaining a lot of water.
“The last time I spoke with George Lockhart was in the locker room before my fight. He disappeared after the fight. I’m not working with him anymore”.
In December 2016, the UFC made the decision to create a featherweight division for females, announcing that Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie would strike it out for the inaugural women’s 145-pound title at UFC 208. While many expected ‘Cyborg’ to feature in this bout, the Invicta FC featherweight champion was absent. White confirmed that the Brazilian rejected his advances on numerous occasions to fight in the new featherweight division:
“I offered Cris Cyborg a title fight at 145 pounds a month ago,” said White . “She had eight weeks to get ready for it; she said she couldn’t make the weight. She couldn’t make 145 pounds. So then I offered her another 145-pound title fight for Brooklyn and she turned it down.
“She has turned down two 145-pound title fights.”
Although Justino disputed this, she did admit to requesting a fixture “pushback” to March 2017. Not long after, Cyborg tested positive for banned substances from an out-of-competition sample not long after it was announced that Holm and De Randamie would fight for the new strap. With a potential anti-doping violation looming, this would have kept her off of the card, regardless.
UFC’s president [White] confirmed during an appearance on the UFC Unfiltered podcast that the division was created for Cyborg:
“We did it for (Cyborg) and now she’s in this position with USADA. I don’t know how this is going to play out, so we’ve got to see what happens here. Hopefully this will all get smoked out soon and I can figure out what to do with the 145 (division),”
Following Justino’s anti-doping flag, Invicta FC have opted to create an interim featherweight title, and UFC fans will focus on witnessing piece of MMA history at UFC 208 that many had suspected would have featured the dangerous Brazilian:
“We’ve got two of the most decorated strikers ever in the UFC fighting for the title (Holm and de Randamie),” said White. “It should be a fun fight. We’ll see how that thing ends and then we’ll go from there.”
