Cris makes a great point. Suddenly Ronda is now the crusader for female body image, but Cris has been getting shit on for her looks ever since she came to prominence in the sport, and Ronda has done nothing but add to it.
I believe that prominence in mma started with steroids also. Coincidence?
Ronda is a superstar, she can sell a million PPV's fighting girls that no one gives a chance to, like Bethe Correia. She doesn't need Cyborg to draw money, so I think they're happy enough to let Ronda keep fighting lesser challenges and bringing in solid PPV buys.
and Cyborg only fights future mma hall of famers like Van Duin, Tweet and Muxlow? The competition is at 135 and below. Even Cyborg admitted that back in 2011 when strikeforce/UFC asked her to drop down to 135. Tate, Nunes, Cat and McMann would give Cyborg the best fights she's ever had in her career and Ronda has already demolished 3 of them. Using Bethe as the typical Ronda opponent is disingenuous.
They'd be thrilled if Cyborg dropped off the face of the earth and everyone stopped talking about the fight.
They'd be thrilled if she made 135 lbs clean, fought Ronda and lost and then stayed at 135 lbs so they could have another legit challenger in the division.
Ronda competed in Judo at 154, started her MMA career at 145 and she can't fight her biggest challenge at 145 or catch weight? Pure duck, IMO.
Holm won boxing titles at 160 lbs and 154 lbs and can make 135 lbs. Cyborg didn't always weigh 175 lbs either. In fact she used to be a lot smaller. Her first mma fight was at 140 lbs, in which she tapped out to a double kneebar.
Also, Ronda spent half her judo career competing at 138 lbs not 154 lbs. When she started mma she weighed 160 lbs and immediately lost 15 lbs of mostly fat just by training. I'm sure you've seen the picture of 70kg judo Ronda. If you're suggesting she should fight at her current walk around weight while Cyborg is cutting down from a ripped 175 lbs just to prove a point to her haters, who will surely find something else to hate on her about, then you're delusional because it's not going to happen.
And one more thing, the use of the word "duck" is borderline fighter bashing, IMO. Both fighters are trying to get the fight where they feel they have the most advantage but as it stands, Cyborg fights in the weakest women's division, her title is not recognized by anyone as being significant, she's not a draw and therefore, she holds no leverage in being able to demand at what weight this fight will take place. Ronda has already said in the past she would be willing to fight Cyborg at 140 lbs if Dana asked her to do it, which blows your "ducking" theory out of the water. Dana has been consistent with every potential challenger, make 135 lbs and the fight will happen. He told Carano this and he's told Cyborg this and you can believe if he didn't make an exception for Carano he's absolutely not going to make an exception for Cyborg.
If the UFC adds the 145 lb division, which they won't because it's as shallow as a kiddie pool, maybe we'll see fighters moving up and down the weight classes and a rare catchweight fight but until then the only game in town is the 135 lb or 115 lb division.