Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Cris Cyborg vs Lina Lansberg

Here's the match video of Cris Cyborg vs Lina Lansberg from last night's UFC show in Brasilia, Brazil. The fight was at a 140lb catchweight. Lina is from Sweden. She's a kickboxer turned MMA fighter similar to Joanna Jedrzejczyk or Valentina Shevchenko but she's much older than those two. She also normally fights at 135. So after this sacrificial lamb stint, she will go direct to the 135lb roster. The fight went as expected but Lina somehow made it out of the first round despite zero offense. It's almost like Cyborg was playing around until pounding her into the mat for the round two win. So the big question is what is the UFC going to do with Cyborg. I don't think they will change anything. They will do these catchweight bouts in Brazil because she's a draw there. When the contract is over, that's it. I know there is fan sentiment to make concessions to Cyborg because of her weight cut. But remember she cuts from 170lb. Her weight cut has always been difficult. That's not new but now fans got to see it and they feel sorry for her. But plenty of fighters have tough weight cuts. What many of them do is they don't put on as much weight when they aren't fighting. Maybe the cut would be easier if she started at 155. Weighing 170 is her choice. Remember when she signed this contract it was with the promise that she would try to cut to 135. This suggestion was not new. Before her drug suspension, Scott Coker of Strikeforce asked her to drop to 135 and she said she would. He ran out of opponents for her. When the UFC was getting into women's MMA, she again promised to drop to 135. The UFC even sent nutritionist Mike Dolce to help her. But she changed management and new manager Tito Ortiz decided to use his animosity towards UFC president Dana White to ruin Cyborg's career. So he claimed that dropping to 135 was unhealthy. Recently Cyborg's current nutritionist George Lockhart admitted that if she dropped to 135 she would lose her competitive advantage. So the health claims were never true. I believe that if she had remained with her previous management in Brazil, Cyborg would have already fought several times at 135. So remember you're only getting one side of the story and there are a lot of supposedly objective people with very short memories. There is also this lamebrained idea that if the UFC started a 145lb division, all kinds of great fighters would come out of the woodwork. "If you build it, they will come." Unfortunately, all of the decent 145lb fighters are under contract to Bellator. So I expect the UFC to continue to ask 135lb fighters to move up to 140 for one fight and pay them a premium. So Dana White, back up that Brinks truck to Germaine De Randamie's house because I want her to fight Cris Cyborg. Enjoy the video!