Faith Van Duin may have been standing in the opposite corner, but the Kiwi grappler was never Cris Cyborg's opponent at Invicta 13. Not really.
As always, Cyborg was battling expectations, combating memories, attempting to live up to her fearsome reputation as the world's most dangerous female fighter. It's a daunting task—but in just 45 seconds she delivered in a big way, crushing poor Van Duin with a knee to the body and finishing her business with punches on the ground.
After the fight, her message to the fight world was every bit as blunt as her devastating striking.
"Ronda Rousey, stop running!"
The two women have been on a collision course for years. Rousey, the UFC's bantamweight champion, is the face of women's mixed martial arts. The blonde bombshell, as comfortable in front of the television cameras as she is in the cage, has all the tools to become the most compelling fighter in the sport.
In some ways, however, Rousey is just a little bit too good. Like Cyborg, there's never any doubt about the outcome of a Rousey fight. It's a question of how long she'll play with her food before finishing a bout, not whether or not she'll win.
Beating up a series of hapless opponents was enough when Rousey was establishing her brand and making a case for women on the sport's grandest stage. She's won that fight already, resoundingly.
It's harder now, in the wake of her destruction, to get excited about a Rousey fight. Even manufactured drama against the likes of Bethe Correia is only so compelling. After all, is there really any doubt what's going to happen when the two women step into the cage?
A Cyborg fight would be different. Instead of assuming the result in advance, there would be substantive debate. Battle lines would form in the MMA world. People would care.
Cyborg is the kind of opponent Rousey needs to continue pouring coal into the women's MMA freight train. It's the kind of classic battle that has defined the sport from its earliest days—science and technique versus strength and pure animal brawn. It's the kind of fight that turns champions into legends.
"I think everybody want to watch this fight," Cyborg told MMA Fighting's Marc Raimondi. "I think it's very important for women's MMA. I want to be part of this. The first very important fight was with Gina Carano, and I'm very happy about this...I fight Ronda Rousey, I fight two big events. I helped grow up women's MMA."
The stumbling block to making this obvious fight actually happen is weight. Cyborg fights at 145 pounds and weighs up to 175 pounds when she's not competing. Cutting to 135 pounds for a Rousey bout may simply be impossible.
"I already have a lot of problems about cutting weight, dieting and a lot of things," Cyborg told the media. "It's not healthy what we do. Drop to 135? And be healthy? OK, of course."
Cyborg has proposed an elegant solution to what might otherwise be a fight-killing problem—that the two meet in the middle at 140 pounds. Rousey, who once fought in the 145-pound class herself and competed at the Olympics in Judo at 154 pounds, is well suited physically to match up well with her there.
As the more popular fighter she could draw a line in the sand and refuse to make this concession. There are hints that she will. That would be a mistake.
Rousey's goal is to be the greatest fighter ever. Not the greatest female fighter. The greatest fighter. Making that case will be tough—and you can't do it against overmatched, hapless foes like Correia. If Rousey really wants to be the best, she needs a rival worthy of song.
That rival is Cris Cyborg. And she's waiting.
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