Cris “Cyborg” Justino’s desire to participate at the most elite level of mixed martial arts was so fierce she admits, “it took out my heart.”
Better late than never at age 32, the UFC’s new women’s featherweight champion, with a newly signed contract extension, has her first UFC pay-per-view main event Saturday night when she meets former bantamweight champion Holly Holm at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I look at it like I’m in the perfect time in my career. I’m mature, getting better,” Justino said. “Everything is God’s plan. I kept training hard with everything that happened and now I’ve showed I can overcome. You want to rush and then you get frustrated. … Now, it’s right.”
That calm perspective is a far cry from the angst and tension that long hovered over Justino (18-1), who said she was training in MMA before major pro women’s fighting existed.
She lost her pro debut in 2005 in her native Brazil, then began a dominating run of eight consecutive knockouts that culminates on Saturday in her most high-profile fight yet.
Justino’s talent certainly justified a spot in the UFC, but President Dana White didn’t add a division larger than the 135-pound group until this year.
Justino once said she’d die if she had to cut to 135 pounds, cracking Thursday that a skeleton-face patch on her warmup jacket “was what I looked like when I fought at 140.”
“All my life, I have a lot of drama. This helps you to be mentally strong,” Justino said. “I use everything against me to motivate me to keep going.”
After winning the Strikeforce featherweight belt and submitting a positive sample for the banned steroid stanozolol in late 2011, Justino moved to the Invicta Fight Club and posted four first-round knockouts as a champion, fighting before crowds around 1,000.
Two months after Holm knocked out Ronda Rousey, White and then-UFC Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta watched Justino fight in person and signed her for non-title fights at 140 pounds.
“I just kept training hard and took the opportunities in the other events and said, ‘I can show [myself] and one day the opportunity will be there,’” Justino said.
Holm lost to Germaine de Randamie in the UFC’s first featherweight fight in February. Then, De Randamie pointed to Justino’s past positive drug test and balked at the UFC’s order to fight Justino next, so she was stripped of the belt.
Justino stepped in and knocked out Tonya Evinger to claim the belt in Anaheim in July.
That bout was placed third on the card, under two other men’s title fights.
Saturday night is hers.
The bout has a compelling storyline in that Holm vanquished Justino’s bitter rival Rousey, and is a former champion boxer.
Justino’s strategy relies on delivering punches complemented by knees and kicks. But now she confronts the most skilled stand-up fighter in women’s mixed martial arts.
In this training camp, Justino has consulted with unbeaten women’s welterweight boxing champion Cecilia Braekhus and two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields.
“It’s kind of hilarious to see these girls ganging up trying to beat Holly,” Holm’s longtime manager, Lenny Fresquez, said. “It shows the insecurity of ‘Cyborg.’ We don’t have to do that.”
Holm’s faster punching speed while being more astute at punching angles should set up a victory, Fresquez theorizes.
“Holly understands what this fight means to her legacy — the second belt — and she always has been that person who wants to fight the impossible,” Fresquez said. “Whoever we put her against, she never hesitates. I think she becomes the greatest female combat fighter of all time with a win.”
Justino would have such a claim by winning, too.
“I enjoy challenging myself and Holly has a lot of experience and determination,” Justino said. “We worked a lot on the fact we know Holly will run a lot, so we worked to be patient to find the time to finish the fight. We can use MMA, grappling, everything. It’s an MMA fight.
“I don’t pick a time to finish a fight. When I see the time, I finish.”
Should she defeat Holm, Justino has spoken of fighting Invicta featherweight champion Megan Anderson next. More compelling is the fact that countrywoman and UFC bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes has expressed interest in fighting Justino.
“I never wanted to fight her because she’s Brazilian, but she’s challenging me. If she wants to do that, we can and it’d be special,” Justino said. “It’d break the hearts of Brazilians, but it’d be an amazing fight.”
Most of all, she wants to relish the long-delayed night finally reserved for her.
“I will be really happy when I hold this belt at this fight. It will be a new chapter in my career,” Justino said. “I am going to do an amazing job and the UFC is going to be proud of me as a champion.”
UFC 219
Main Event: Cris “Cyborg” Justino (18-1), Costa Mesa, vs. Holly Holm (11-3), Albuquerque, for Justino’s women’s featherweight belt
When: Saturday, 7 p.m. Pacific time
Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas
Television: Pay-per-view, $59.99; Preliminaries at 5 p.m. on FS1
Undercard: No. 2 Khabib Nurmagomedov (24-0) vs. No. 4 Edson Barboza (19-4), lightweights; No. 8 Carlos Condit (30-10) vs. No. 12 Neil Magny (19-7), welterweights; No. 6 Cynthia Calvillo (6-0) vs. No. 9 Carla Esparza (13-4), women’s strawweights; Dan Hooker (15-7) vs. Marc Diakiese (12-1), lightweights
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