When superstars collide, gold dust gets created.
The rematch between Dominick Cruz and Demetrious Johnson might just be the most high-skilled match-up the promotion could make. It’s a stylistically intriguing bout and a legitimate superfight between two champions, but not even purists believe that fight would come close to breaking any PPV records.
That’s just not how this sport works. Fans crave star power, and few have more of that intangible quality than Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey. And so there are only two real candidates for the biggest fight the UFC could possibly put on right now.
The first is Conor McGregor against Georges St-Pierre. We know what you’re thinking, keep dreaming, but GSP wants to return and the rumours are that he wants to come back at 155lbs. If the big wigs can reach an agreement with the Canadian superstar, the money fight to make would be against McGregor (who they hope will be the lightweight champion by then after UFC 205).
St-Pierre’s negotiations with the promotion appear to have hit a snag with Dana White publicly saying he doesn’t believe the former welterweight champion ever wants to compete again. So that fight may not be a goer, which leaves us with the other option – Ronda Rousey vs Cristiane Justino.
Cyborg is arguably the P4P greatest female fighter in MMA. An astonishing 14 of her 15 wins have come by way of knockout and since signing for the UFC her popularity has continued to grow, with her win over Lina Lansberg drawing 1,326,000 viewers on Fox.
Her continuous call-outs of Rousey haven’t fallen on deaf ears either, as Dana White told the Herd on Fox Sports 1:
“The reality is this. Cris Cyborg is devastatingly good. She’s been destroying everybody right now. Her popularity is actually starting to go like this. She’s getting bigger. Everybody wants it right here, right now – it doesn’t happen that way.”
Rousey is booked to take on champion Amanda Nunes for the women’s bantamweight strap at the end of the year, and if she wins her return bout, White hints it will pave the way for the UFC to finally give Cyborg her shot at “Rowdy”.
“I promise you this, Ronda has to come in and fight on December 30. Ronda has to win. The girl that she’s fighting is no push-over. She’s nasty and tough, and Ronda’s got a fight on her hands there. If she wins that fight, her and Cris Cyborg are eventually going to fight. Ronda wants that fight. It will be the biggest PPV in UFC history.”
But White’s use of the word “eventually” doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence and when he was asked if Rousey’s next fight would be against Cyborg if she beat Nunes, he refused to make any guarantees.
“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see what happens. This thing’s got to play out first, then we’ll see what happens.”
At this rate it will happen at UFC 2000.
