Rouseys Manager: Cyborg Must Cut to 135, Random Drug Tests

Ronda Rousey's manager Darin Harvey was a guest on today's edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, and had a lot to say about a possible bout with the currently-suspended Cristiane Santos. He laid out a list of conditions for the possible bout, including random testing and even hair follicle testing (drug molecules linger a lot longer in follicles) to make sure she hasn't been using any PEDs while out on suspension:

"I’ll tell you why," he said. "I believe this is not the first time she used steroids; it's only the first time she’s been caught.

"I wasn't surprised," he continued. "People have speculated but you couldn't really prove it. Now, it’s been proven. This is my belief. I’m not a doctor but I've been around athletes my whole life and I believe that when you take steroids, you alternate your body permanently. Maybe you lose some of the muscle mass, but a lot remains. So she’s permanently altered her body. And I want everything to be to our advantage. She's been taking male hormones, and it's not only unethical, it's freaking dangerous, and you're endangering the lives of the athletes. She's coming in there basically with man-like strength or male hormones in her body, and she's endangering the lives of our athletes."

Harvey stated it wasn't personal, just business. But the testing is necessary for the bout to happen:

"I won't sign the bout agreement unless they agree to random drug testing throughout the camp," he said. "From the beginning, from the date that the bout agreement is signed, or maybe even before that point, until the day that they fight. And if they don't agree to that, we wont fight her."

Another major stumbling block for the bout is the weight it would be contested at. Cyborg says she can't make 135, while Rousey says she has to for the bout to go forward. Rousey's manager reiterated that stance here:

"She's going to have to figure out a way to make the weight," he said. "And I believe she can make the weight."

As far as the weight debate, Harvey reiterated that Rousey would only take the fight at 135 pounds. On that though, he did leave some wiggle room, saying that if the bout ended up on pay-per-view and/or brought with it a financial windfall, there might be some room for persuasion.

Those are pretty strict conditions. To the point that I think it will be very, very hard to make this bout happen without some sort of compromise from both sides.



from bloodyelbow.com

I really struggle to see how Cyborg makes 135lbs when she's struggled to make 145lbs in the past.

simple, lets see her without multiple steroids, some of which horse's use, aren't in her system.

Birdofthad wrote:

simple, lets see her without multiple steroids, some of which horse's use, aren't in her system.

Even so Cristiane would be in danger of draining herself.

Rousey is the champ and Santos' steroid debacle doesn't give her much wiggle room at the table.

She can't make 135... And if she tries she'll damage her body even more than the steroids did. Just go to belator and rule their division

Random drug testing fine, but 135 = see above post.

Ali wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

simple, lets see her without multiple steroids, some of which horse's use, aren't in her system.

Even so Cristiane would be in danger of draining herself.

Rousey is the champ and Santos' steroid debacle doesn't give her much wiggle room at the table.

lets talk danger, how'd ya like to be the map who got squashed in 16 seconds after Cyborg was jacked up on horse pills.

Cyborg has NO WIGGLE ROOM, (just like you said) 145 is on hiatus because of her fuck up and her fuck up alone. If she can't cut 10 pounds and fight a legitimate clean, threat to her, then fuck her, let her go to Invicta and try and find someone willing to fight her.

It does look like a duck considering that Ronda started at 145lbs and when she moved down Ronda herself said it was to make a Cyborg fight bigger for the future.

Cyborg has plenty of time to drop the weight. She wants a release now since 145 is gone, so she's gonna be in bellator in 7 months imo. Rhonda had stated she would fight her at 145 back in the day so i hope she fights her at 145 just to see who the best is right now.

Plain and simple, they don't want the fight.

You don't willingly create barriers to something you want. It kind of affirms Cyborgs opinion about Rousey ducking her to me. Ask someone who has missed weight before at 145 coming in at 151 hurting, someone who last fought at BW over 5 years ago, someone who has enough problems with size they resort to cutting phat chemically, someone who hasn't gone through a championship fight camp in over a year to return and cut even more. C'mon, how bad do you not want it?

bigbeastcardinal12 wrote:

Cyborg has plenty of time to drop the weight. She wants a release now since 145 is gone, so she's gonna be in bellator in 7 months imo. Rhonda had stated she would fight her at 145 back in the day so i hope she fights her at 145 just to see who the best is right now.

the thing is though 145 isn't done, there was a 145 woman's fight on the Rousey vs Kaufman undercard.

Cyborg is the one ducking this, she is a fucking cheater, who wants to do things her way. Sorry Guyborg, it doesn't work that way, seriously no single fighter has come as close to destroying an entire division as Cyborg has. Think about that, the HW's were ok after Barnett and Timmy, but this cheater nearly blew the whole division out of SF.

She has to prove she is clean first. If she doesn't want to drop to 135 and fight Rousey, her loss, she is butt fucking ugly and has no marketing push behind her.

ROusey holds all the cards in this one, add in she has just beaten 2 of the top 135 pound fighters in a combined 5 minutes.

would everyone agree.

Rouseys 2 toughest opponents (Tate and Kaufman) are better than Cyborgs 2 top opponents (Carano and Coenen)

and Im a huge Coenen fan.

GDP she wasn't cutting weight chemically as much as she was adding mass and retaining mass, that would have been LOST IN THE WEIGHT CUT

man Womans MMA is alive. gotta good little discussion going on Cyborg and ROusey

The communication is clear, tease something but cast up barriers, then claim they can be removed for the right amount of money. Just not the words of an interested party. Ironic just this morning on an other board I commented on what I thought was the growing similarities between RR and JJ. Weird.

lol, i feelya on that (RR and JJ), I just think Rousey is being smart.
If there was a man woman out there hulk smashing everyone who just pissed hot I would say take tests and come to my comfortable weight class.

It is smart, as said by her manager, " I want everything to be to our advantage" or "if the bout ended up on pay-per-view and/or brought with it a financial windfall, there might be some room". I don't think he represented well at all really.

agreed, now on that note its smoke and happy hour break, b back in a couple hours fuming from my magical twig and drank powers!

Farmers, prepare for another dog war lol.

Quote :

"I get many questions about Ronda Rousey, and I would like to set the record straight for the last time, as I do not consider her much personally, much less as a fighter," Santos told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) through an interpreter. "She claims she is the champion and openly challenges me to fight at 135 pounds, which I find laughable. She competed in the Beijing Olympics at 154 pounds and fought at 145 pounds in MMA until she learned she would have to fight me and then dropped to 135 pounds.

"I have never fought below 145 pounds, and I am considered the pound-for-pound top woman fighter in the world. I have yet to lose a fight while holding the Strikeforce 145-pound title. My last fight was considered a no contest, but that has not changed the fact that I am the women's 145-pound champion."

"There really is not a safe way for me to cut to 135 pounds – not without hurting myself physically," Santos said. "I am less than eight percent body fat at 145 pounds, and my cardiologist and physician have advised me that to make such a drastic reduction in weight could have permanent effects on my long-term health. I will not endanger my health to satisfy the rantings of a spoiled little girl who has yet to prove that she can truly compete at my level at a weight she has not only fought at before but has been awarded an Olympic medal."

"To put this issue to rest, if Ronda is the future of women's MMA and is the champion that she envisions, you know where I am, and I am more than willing to give you an opportunity to test me," Santos said. "I will fight you at 145 pounds – you know, the weight that you started at – and then you can have two belts and prove to everyone that you are indeed a champion. If not, stay at 135 pounds and continue to delude yourself and your fans that you can beat me. You're really not worth my time otherwise.

"I will do all of my talking in the ring. Until then, you're really not worth my breath."

http://mmajunkie.com/news/30290/cyborg-done-talking-rousey-says-spoiled-little-girl-can-come-back-to-original-weight-for-superfight.mma

Pretty well put by Santos. I tend to agree with her side of this discussion. I think Rousey and her camp look bad even discussing this fight since their language makes it clear that they are not interested, just leave it alone if you don;t want it.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Pretty well put by Santos. I tend to agree with her side of this discussion. I think Rousey and her camp look bad even discussing this fight since their language makes it clear that they are not interested, just leave it alone if you don;t want it.

only problem is she isn't even right about ROnda dropping weight classes to avoid her, she dropped down after Cyborg got popped

Birdofthad wrote:

GDPofDRC wrote:

Pretty well put by Santos. I tend to agree with her side of this discussion. I think Rousey and her camp look bad even discussing this fight since their language makes it clear that they are not interested, just leave it alone if you don;t want it.

only problem is she isn't even right about ROnda dropping weight classes to avoid her, she dropped down after Cyborg got popped

Now she's back and they want no part of that fight.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

GDPofDRC wrote:

Pretty well put by Santos. I tend to agree with her side of this discussion. I think Rousey and her camp look bad even discussing this fight since their language makes it clear that they are not interested, just leave it alone if you don;t want it.

only problem is she isn't even right about ROnda dropping weight classes to avoid her, she dropped down after Cyborg got popped

Now she's back and they want no part of that fight.

Sucks for Cyborg but everyone at 135 is better off at that weight anyways. It's not like they are killing themselves to make 135 just to avoid Cyborg. 135 has developed into the elite class of WMAA. These girls obviously either weren't in the same kind of shape Cyborg was in or wasn't cutting the same amount of weight she was. It's a crappy situation for Cyborg, but even if she wasn't around, these girls are better off at 135. Ideally, Cyborg would be able to drop down and make that division even better. I don't think Ronda is obligated to move up to 145. But at the same time it is kind of a bitch move calling out a fight you know isn't possible. It's like teasing a dog from the other side of the fence.

I think if Rousey wants to test Santos she does have an obligation to fight at 145. That is Santos weight. If she doesn't want the fight Santos, she needs to shut up about it and move on, not stipulate demands in her favor. Which is why they have convinced me they don't want this fight.

Old school open weight fight!