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After Cristiane Justino won the Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s featherweight title via third-round shellacking of late replacement Tonya Evinger at UFC 214, it looked like her torrid history with the promotion could be water under the bridge.
Justino’s days undertaking life-threatening weight cuts for 140-pound catchweight fights were over, UFC president Dana White had made the unprecedented gesture of admitting the company had mishandled her career, fights with Holly Holm and Megan Anderson beckoned and all conventional wisdom dictated that the organization would build a 145-pound division around her like it did with Ronda Rousey and the bantamweights.