'Cyborg' Justino says she'd fight UFC champ Ronda Rousey at 140 pounds 'tomorrow'

These days, there is no talking to Cristiane Justino without talking about Ronda Rousey.

Justino (12-1) will defend her Invicta FC featherweight championship against Charmaine Tweet (6-4) Friday night at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, one day before Rousey (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) puts her UFC bantamweight belt on the line at Staples Center, also in Los Angeles.

“Cyborg” spoke to the assembled media at the Invicta FC 11 open workouts and claimed she’s keeping her focus on Tweet and not looking ahead to a potential superfight with Rousey.

“Now, I think about my next fight Friday,” Justino said. “I think about Charmaine. Of course, after this fight I don’t know. I have more fights in my weight class. I can work on dropping to 135. Of course, I think about Ronda. If I don’t think about her, she talks about me. It’s OK.”

The barrier to a fight between the sport’s two most accomplished women continues to be the 10-pound gulf separating their weight classes. Justino is big even for featherweight, but has long talked about cutting to 135 for a shot at Rousey.

Plans of her next fight taking place at bantamweight were scrambled when Justino suffered an injury.

“This is my dream, too – to see if I can drop to 135,” Justino said of making the drop eventually and getting the fight with Rousey. “I work on this. I had an injury; I could not drop to 135.

“I have to respect my body. It’s very emotional. I want to make 135 tomorrow. But it’s my body and you do training and take time. Maybe one day, we’ll make this fight.”

If the two fighters could meet at a catchweight, the fight could happen much sooner, Justino said when asked about the potential for the fighters to split the difference to make the superfight happen.

“Yeah,” Justino said. “140? We can fight tomorrow. 135? I don’t know because one time, I made 140 – my first fight in the United States vs. Shayna Baszler. Hard. But now, I’ve learned more. I think 140 would be perfect, but I know it has to be 135.”

“Cyborg” said that she’s excited to watch Rousey’s fight with challenger Cat Zingano. Ultimately, she still wants her shot at the Olympic silver medalist, win or lose.

“It doesn’t matter,” Justino said. “If Ronda loses? I want to fight her anyway. And if she wins? We fight anyway. For me it doesn’t matter if she wins or loses. I never say anything about her out of the cage and we have to fix it inside the cage.”

The rivalry could mean big money for the UFC. Does that mean Cyborg will be in attendance on Saturday night?

“Maybe,” she said.

For more on Invicta FC 11, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.