Cyborg Justino Doesn’t See 135 In Her Future

Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino spoke with MMAjunkie ahead of her fight with Lina Lansberg at UFC Fight Night 95. Some highlights are below:

On having a problem getting fights: “I want to do catchweight bouts, but I wanted to fight top-10 girls. I think the UFC is having problems making fights with girls like Holly Holm, Miesha Tate, Ronda (Rousey), the 135-pound girls. I don’t think it’s the UFC that doesn’t want it, I think it’s the athlete. You can’t force athletes to challenge themselves. You need to take the challenges yourself. I do that. Recently I fought a muay Thai champion. She had 40 fights and I had three. And I took it. So I think it’s up to the athlete. I don’t see things as win or lose, I think it’s about putting on a great fight, and people thinking of me as a girl who put on a great fight. I think you can’t put that on someone’s heart. I think the motivation is lacking a bit.”

On her future in the UFC: “I believe the argument is always that there aren’t enough opponents. I believe they think I can go to 135. I’m working with my team, doing my best and making 140. But my health comes first. Regardless, I want to be there and put on good fights – not just go (into) the octagon. I want to fight like Cris ‘Cyborg’ fights. I don’t want to go in there and be a mummy. So it depends on me continuing to do my job. They liked my last fight, my debut, and are giving me an opportunity to do a main event in Brasilia. And I’m certainly going to give it my best now, do a good job, and I’m sure a lot of fruits will come from this fight.”

On whether she could join the 135-pound division: “No, just my division and superfights. I’m not going to say ‘impossible,’ but I’m always going at my limit. For every fight, I go to the doctor, take a test, make sure everything is OK. I take it one step at a time, so let’s take this first step at 140.”

On cutting to 140: “I’d actually been dieting for two years to make bantamweight. And I said I could do 140, but not bantam. There was the opportunity to fight at UFC 198, in Curitiba. 140 was hard for me. My weight is already hard, I’ll usually walk around at 175 pounds, around 77 kilos, but I thought nothing is impossible and I thought it was so special that it was in Curitiba, in my hometown in Brasil, that I thought I had to try and give it my all…I’ve cut a lot (of muscle mass). In two years, I cut a lot. If you’d met me before, if you see pictures of me between fights, I’ve already lost a lot of muscle mass and we did extensive work. Because when you lose muscle mass, you lose strength. So you need to do extensive work, which we’ve been doing for two and a half years, so as not so lose strength, just the mass. We’re trying, we’re working.”

On her fight plan: “I’m going to look for the knockout at all times. That’s my game. I’m not going to tell you that I’m going for the takedown and the submission, because everyone knows knockouts are what I like. And I hope my opponent has the same focus so we can put on a great fight for the fans.”