As far as Miesha Tate is concerned, Ronda Rousey has fought in the 145-pound weight class in the early goings of her career. So how did she end up in the 135-pound category?
Tate explains that since Rousey entered the fighting scene, Rousey had always been at 145. So with that in mind, it would have been a no-brainer to see Rousey face off against Cris "Cyborg" Justino at featherweight if she wanted to.
But as everyone knows Rousey opted to move down to the 135-pound class, which as everyone knows Rousey has been dominating to this day.
With that in mind and Tate knowing that Rousey had started off at 145-pound class, did she purposely go down to avoid a confrontation with Cyborg?
"It seemed like when the talks of 'Cyborg' became more serious it was like 'No, I'm dropping to 135,' " says Tate on Rousey via Fox Sports.
Everyone knows, of course, that Rousey and Cyborg have been at it trash-talking and such is one matchup that everyone wants to see. In fact, there were rumors that the two would be facing off this December when Justino's camp claimed that the UFC had approached them for a possible tiff in lieu of the initially planned Rousey vs. Miesha Tate III.
UFC President Dana White. of course. cleared all that up and said that the only way that Cyborg would face Rousey is for her to trim down to 135 pounds and fight at least once in the UFC.
Apparently, Justino is on her way to satisfying at least one of those requirements. She will be fighting this November at the 140-pound class against a yet-to-be-named opponent. The fight will be her lowest weight class to fight in yet.
So can Justino make it at 135 pounds?
"What I remember about some fights at 145 pounds, I think, 'Man, it's impossible (to make 135).' But I now believe I can make 135. It's in God's hands. If I do 90 percent, I'm sure he'll do the other 10 percent," says Justino in an interview with ESPN.
