Rousey Bashes ‘Pumped To The F*cking Gills With Steroids’ Cyborg

Photo by David Dermer/Diamond Images/Getty Images

Ronda Rousey and Cris “Cyborg” Justino’s never-fulfilled rivalry was surprisingly rekindled today (Weds., Aug. 21, 2024).

Mixed martial arts (MMA) history can’t be told without the inclusion of two of its all-time most dominant fighters and champions. For both Rousey and Cyborg, Strikeforce was the launching pad and eye-catcher for the future when Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) inevitably bought and absorbed the company. Ultimately, Rousey became the biggest female star the sport has ever seen, and believed, at the time, she had to help save it from her fellow champion.

“People forget how fragile that situation was and how last-minute I was able to get us in,” Rousey told Chris Van Vliet of women in UFC (h/t MMA Fighting). “Strikeforce was the only organization that was really showcasing women and that was because of Gina Carano, because her dad was involved with the Nevada Athletic Commission and was able to sanction fights for her and all these things.

“When she was gone, Cris Cyborg’s pumped to the f*cking gills with steroids,” she continued. “No one wants to watch that cheating-ass b*tch. Everything just tanked. The division was dying. The UFC bought Strikeforce and it was assumed they were just going to absorb all of the male talent that they liked and fold the whole organization because that’s what they did with PRIDE, that’s what they did with WEC, that was their business model. So there was a matter of time.”

Before Strikeforce was absorbed, Cyborg fought her final fight under the banner in a blistering 16-second knockout title defense against Japan’s Hiroko Yamanaka. Unfortunately for Yamanaka and the promotion, Cyborg tested positive for stanozolol and the bout was changed to a no-contest before Cyborg was stripped of the Featherweight title.

Seeing the comments from Rousey, Cyborg couldn’t help but laugh.

“[crying laughing emoji] does @RondaRousey realize she only has 8 fights in the ufc and only won 75% of them?! [clown and Earth emojis]” Cyborg replied on Twitter.

The positive test was the Brazilian legend’s only failure of her 30-fight career (27-2, 1 no contest). Meanwhile, Bantamweight’s Rousey went 12-2 before retiring in early 2017 on the heels of her losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes.

“Once women were brought to the UFC, [Dana White] said, ‘This is an experiment, this is to see how it goes,’” Rousey said. “It got to a point where we had to see how it would go without me because it was so dependent on me.

“Whereas, I think if I retired undefeated and left, I don’t know what it would be like. Because they’ve already brought in the [145-pound] division and closed it. They’re not against closing divisions.”