UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, as expected, scoffed at the notion that she's running from Invicta FC featherweight titleholder Cristiane Justino.
In a brief interview with TMZ, the "Rowdy" one went off on her Brazilian rival when asked about the recent comments "Cyborg" made on AXS TV's Inside MMA.
"She got dropped like five times in her last fight ... to some chick I've never heard of before. By the way, that chick was a 'G', that was pretty cool. But uh, yea, I'm the one with the belt and I'm not going anywhere. She was the one who asked to be released from the UFC like 24 hours after they announced out of competition drug testing, so I don't know who's running from who in this scenario. But she knows where I'm at, I'm not going anywhere."
Rousey is referring to Justino's unanimous decision loss to undefeated Jorina Baars at Lion Fight 14 late last month. The matchup was a pure striking bout contested under Muay Thai rules.
Despite having a quick, decisive knockout win over Hiroko Yamanaka changed to a no contest following testing positive for steroids in January 2012, the UFC still decided to add Cyborg to their roster.
The UFC's parent company, Zuffa LLC, purchased Strikeforce in March 2011. Therefore, once the company folded in January 2013, the UFC had the option of retaining the contracts of any and all Strikeforce competitors.
A superfight between Rousey and Justino seemed imminent in early 2013. However, after weeks of negotiating came up short, the heavy-handed striker asked for her release and the UFC obliged, per MMA Weekly.
Justino has since scored back-to-back TKO's under the Invicta FC banner, capturing the featherweight championship after she won a rematch with Marloes Coenen back in July.
While Justino has recently changed her stance about making the 135-pound bantamweight limit, she has made it clear she would prefer to meet Rousey at featherweight (145 pounds), per Yahoo! Sports.
Rousey remains indifferent about a grudge match with Cyborg, though she has recently expressed serious interest in a dream matchup with women's MMA pioneer Gina Carano, per MMA Fighting.
Will fight fans ever get the pleasure of watching Rousey vs. Cyborg or is this just another fantasy fight that will never become a reality?
John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
