UFC president Dana White has plenty of motivation to match up his mainstream, breakthrough star, UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, against her rival-in-exile, Invicta FC featherweight champ Cristiane "Cyborg" Justino.
At this stage of the game, such a battle would be all but a license to print money.
"I think that fight does 2.5 million buys," a giddy White said late Saturday night, after Rousey knocked out Bethe Correia in 34 seconds. "I think that fight is massive."
Rousey, meanwhile, laid out the reason, in her mind, why the fight hasn't happened yet, and why she won't place "Cyborg" next on her agenda.
"I fight in the UFC 135-pound division," Rousey said at the UFC 190 post-fight news conference in Rio de Janeiro. "She can fight 145 pumped full of steroids, and she can make weight just like everybody else without 'em."
Rousey vs. Justino is a fight which has been discussed ever since Rousey was on her way up and Justino, who then went by the last name Santos, reigned supreme as the face of women's mixed martial arts.
"Cyborg" was the Strikeforce women's featherweight champion when Rousey debuted in 2011. But Justino tested positive for steroids following a 16-second TKO win over Hiroko Yamanaka in San Diego in Dec. 2011, and was suspended for a year while Rousey's star ascended.
In the 16 months Justino ultimately spent between fights, Rousey's career took off like a meteor. A participant on Showtime's Strikeforce Challengers B-level developmental shows in 2011, Rousey singlehandedly brought women's MMA to the UFC by the time Justino returned to action in 2013.
And while Rousey has been able to dismiss Justino over the past two years as Rousey has soared to the top of the combat sports world, Justino simply hasn't gone away. She's picked apart the competition at 145 pounds, and, in fairness, has passed every drug test she's taken in her four fights since her return.
For Rousey, however, the issue remains cut-and-dried: Justino has popped for steroids. Rousey hasn't. And since the UFC doesn't have a 145-pound weight class, Rousey won't cave to the calls to meet at a 140-pound catchweight.
"The day she makes the weight [135] and does what's she's supposed to do, that fight's on," White said. "She wants that fight, everybody, you don't think I want that fight to happen?"
As of now, the public remains fascinated with Rousey's one-sided fights, in a manner similar to how Mike Tyson once captivated imaginations by dropping his foes in the opening round. Saturday night's 34-second victory over Correia was the "longest" of her past three fights. Ten of her 12 career wins are in 1:06 or shorter. She's only been pushed out of the first round once.
Eventually, though, people are going to want to see Rousey get challenged. Rousey has already defeated everyone in the top five in the UFC's women's bantamweight rankings. Former three-weight-class world boxing champion Holly Holm stands out as a potential challenger, but she's still adapting to MMA and isn't there yet.
That leaves Rousey with a third fight against Miesha Tate as the likely next battle. Tate is wildly popular with the fans, and in the divisional scheme of things, has made the strongest case, winning four straight fights after taking Rousey into the third round at UFC 168 before losing.
White knows Tate is the most bankable fight in the women's bantamweight roster at the moment, which is why he went into hard sell mode after Rousey's win Saturday.
"If you don't want to see that fight, what fight do you want to see?" White asked. "Miesha's the No. 1 ranked fighter in the world in that weight class, she looked awesome against Jessica Eye. She dropped her twice in that fight. Ronda-Miesha is always going to be fun."
Of course, it's not as though the UFC has never made a catchweight fight when it's suited their business interests. Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie at UFC 60 was done at 175 pounds, a non-title fight at a time Hughes was UFC welterweight champion. It also did, at the time, the biggest PPV numbers in UFC history.
But this time, Rousey holds all the cards. Justino has spent the past two years swearing she would get down to 135 pounds for a fight in Invicta, to prove she can make the weight, as a prelude to getting a fight against Rousey in the UFC. But Cyborg has yet to actually follow through, which only adds to Rousey's already considerable distrust in Cyborg.
"The Cyborg thing is complicated, because, I'm ready for Cyborg, Ronda's ready for Cyborg, but Cyborg has to make the weight," White said. "I'd be cutting weight now and chomping at the bit to fight Ronda if I was Cyborg. That fight is ready to roll whenever Cyborg is ready."
With Rousey and White turning toward the Tate fight, the ball's in Justino's court. A good-faith attempt at hitting 135 would go a long way toward making the superfight happen. If she can make 135, problem solved. If she can't, but at least tries, and Rousey beats Tate for the third time, Justino will be in a stronger position to make a case for 140 than she is now, when Rousey simply doesn't need her.
Follow Dave Doyle on Twitter: @DaveDoyleMMA
