For the past several years, Invicta FC featherweight Cris “Cyborg” Justino has aggressively begged and pleaded for the UFC to arrange a 140-pound catchweight contest with then-UFC bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey.
This was long before Conor McGregor became CONOR McGREGOR, so Rousey was unquestionably MMA’s biggest superstar and the UFC’s largest cash cow. However, UFC president Dana White threw up one roadblock after another to shut the fantasy fight down.
First, White willingly let Justino out of the contract the UFC inherited when they acquired Strikeforce so there was no way they could make a fight happen when Justino wasn’t signed under their banner.