Trading Shots: Why the sudden sympathy for 'Cyborg' Justino's tough weight cut?

As Cristiane Justino struggled to make weight for her 140-pound catchweight bout in the main event of UFC Fight Night 95 in Brasilia, Brazil, the MMA world looked on with uncommon sympathy. In this week’s Trading Shots, retired UFC and WEC fighter Danny Downes joins MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes to figure out why, and what it all means.

Downes: Ben, last night Cris “Cyborg” Justino (17-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) added another TKO to her record when she finished Lina Lansberg (6-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) in the second round. The result of the fight itself may have been a forgone conclusion, but the question lingering in the lead-up was whether or not she could make weight.

In an appearance on “The MMA Hour” on Monday, Justino said she still needed to cut 24 pounds. That story dominated the headlines and discussion this week. The overwhelming consensus went something like, “How could the UFC make her do this?”

She was painted as a victim who was being taken advantage of. Why was that? I don’t remember media and fans doing that for Renan Barao, Kelvin Gastelum, Johny Hendricks, or plenty of other fighters who have made drastic weight cuts. If she signed the bout, shouldn’t she bear some of the responsibility?

Fowlkes: Once again, I’m amazed at when and where your sympathy for fellow fighters deserts you.

If I were to strip away all context, then I could see your point. I mean hey, making weight sucks, but everybody has to do it, and if you can’t or don’t want to do it then you shouldn’t accept the fight. Fine. But Justino’s situation is different and you know it.

For one thing, 140 pounds isn’t her division. It isn’t anyone’s division. It’s just a halfway point between two established weight classes, but the UFC has decided to turn that point into its own little Cyborgweight division, and for reasons that seem arbitrary and unclear.

It’s not like Hendricks struggling to make welterweight, because he always has the option of giving up that struggle and fighting in the UFC at middleweight instead. “Cyborg” doesn’t get to do that. Her choices are: 1) Compete at 140 pounds for no good reason, or 2) Stay out of the UFC altogether.

What makes it even crazier is that, according to the UFC’s own promotional strategy, she might be the best female fighter on the planet. So why’s she fighting UFC newbies at a catchweight?

The UFC doesn’t want to create a 145-pound women’s class because that would require populating it with a bunch of new fighters and new headaches trying to find fights for them all, and why do that? Justino’s already cleaned out the division anyway. The money fights are with female bantamweights, and this at least nudges her closer.

So that’s where the sympathy comes from. It comes from the knowledge that the UFC, mostly for business reasons, is forcing her to suffer a little more than she needs to, and at a time when we have a heightened awareness of the dangers of weight-cutting.

My question to you is, what does it prove? Matching “Cyborg” up against smaller fighters and then forcing her to meet them in the middle, it doesn’t negate her size or strength advantage – it just makes her a little more miserable during the week prior. Doesn’t al this just give us the illusion of fairness?

Downes: I’m amazed (except not really) at how you like to take my thought and then claim I lack sympathy for fighters. Does being “pro-fighter” mean you have to support every individual fighter in every instance? By that reasoning, if I’m ever upset with a kid, that would make me “anti-children.”

I’m also amazed that everyone seems to think that there’s this wealth of 145-pound female fighters. Invicta is the foremost women’s MMA organization in the world, and it struggled to find opponents for Justino. If you go to the Invicta website right now, there are only 13 featherweight fighters on the roster.

You and your buddies in the so-called media seem to think that MMA works like “Field of Dreams.” If you create an entirely new division, then the fighters will come! That’s not how it works. But what about Ronda Rousey? The UFC created an entire division for her. That is true, but it was also the first women’s division in all of the UFC. There was much more talent to choose from.

The other thing I didn’t appreciate about the discourse this week was how it infantilized Justino. She was characterized as a poor, helpless victim. Why won’t the UFC brass help this poor woman?!

She’s a professional athlete who signed a contract. If she wanted more money, I’d support her. I was even in favor of Conor McGregor flexing his muscle when he didn’t want to do a press conference. When it comes to the actual fight, though, that’s a different matter.

I also don’t buy your “illusion of fairness” argument. If meeting at a catchweight doesn’t negate anyone’s size and strength advantage, then why have weight classes in the first place? You’re telling me that Justino would have showed up exactly the same if she could have fought at 145? You know that doesn’t make sense. What illusion of fairness was there when she beat all her Invicta opponents by TKO (including four in the first round)?

Is it unfortunate that “Cyborg” is in this situation? Absolutely. Is she the most dominant female fighter in the world? No arguments there. But can’t we acknowledge those facts without creating an entire new division? If she becomes the champion of a division that doesn’t even have enough fighters to fill out the rankings, what does that prove?

Fowlkes: See what you’ve done here? See how you’ve shifted the argument? You wanted to know why people felt sympathy for a fighter who had to starve herself just to get down to a weight class that doesn’t exist. So I told you why. Then you wanted to know, well, come on, what do you want the UFC to do, create a new division (which, again, already exists and has existed in MMA for years) just for her?

But I still see your point. Women’s featherweight is a bit of a wasteland, though I’d argue it’s in part because “Cyborg” has laid it to waste. Still, if you don’t want Justino to get her own division, what would you call this 140-pound catchweight class she fights in? It’s a division of one, Danny, with a shifting cast of tourists passing through as needed.

You say you can’t just create a division and expect the fighters to show up like “Shoeless” Joe at Kevin Costner’s farm, and I get that. Then again, if you don’t build it, then you guarantee they won’t come. They can’t.

My point is, if we’ve decided women’s featherweight is a lost cause, what are we doing here? Justino is clearly one of the best fighters in the world, so match her against the best. Making her suffer for those extra five pounds just to fight UFC newbies is like making Jon Jones drop down for a 197-pound catchweight against a middleweight also-ran.

I might watch that once, maybe even twice. But pretty soon it seems like we’re just making the champ angry and hungry all week for nothing.

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie contributor who also writes for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.