“Cyborg” passes on chance to call out Rousey after successful UFC debut

After scoring a quick victory in her long-awaited Ultimate Fighting Championship debut on Saturday night in her hometown of Curitiba, Brazil, Cris “Cyborg” Justino had the eyes and ears of the entire mixed martial arts world squarely fixated on her post-fight interview.

Everyone wanted to know exactly how she would call out Ronda Rousey, against whom Justino had been doggedly pursuing a fight for the last several years.

It never happened.

Justino has competed throughout her career at 145 pounds and has been known as one of the best fighters in the world for the better part of a decade. Her insistence she will never be able to make the 135-pound limit that currently represents the biggest weight class for women in the organization has kept her out of the UFC, however.

So Justino has crushed all comers outside the organization and hounded Rousey from afar, often accusing the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion of being scared to compete against her. UFC officials finally made an exception and signed Justino for a special 140-pound catchweight bout on Saturday night as the organization held an event in her hometown.

Justino lived up to the hype, finishing Leslie Smith in just 81 seconds on the main card of UFC 198.

Welcome to the UFC @criscyborg! #UFC198 pic.twitter.com/Rid2Ix51hY

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) May 15, 2016

That set up her chance to make one more big challenge to Rousey, who has not competed since losing her belt in November, or one of the other stars of the bantamweight division like Holly Holm or Miesha Tate.

Instead, Justino elected to say she’s content continuing to defend her 145-pound Invicta Fighting Championships title.

“I’m the Invicta champion and I want to defend my belt,” Justino said through an interpreter during her post-fight interview in the cage. “I can also fight at a catchweight in the UFC, but I’m the champion (there).”

Justino had her biggest stage yet to make her case for the best fighters in the world to step in the cage with her and provide her the biggest paydays possible and she lets the pitch go right down the middle with the bat on her shoulder.

She later said she just didn’t believe it was the right time.

“Tonight was my moment,” Justino said. “I never thought I’d be here after everything I went through. It was a moment just for me.”

Either she rethought that later in the evening, or whoever runs her social media accounts finally decided to take advantage of the attention.

At 3:45 a.m. PDT on Sunday morning, Justino’s official Twitter account issued a challenge to Rousey to fight her at UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 12.

“Hey @RondaRousey you running all the way to New York?,” Justino posted. “#dontbescaredhomie $CHAMPIONvsEXChampion #ufc205.”

Hey @rondarousey you running all the way to New York? #dontbescaredhomie #CHAMPIONvsEXChampion #ufc205 https://t.co/thgexmLrgI

— Cris Cyborg (@criscyborg) May 15, 2016

It didn’t quite have the same impact as it may have had in the cage several hours earlier.

Holm, who knocked out Rousey to take the belt in November, turned down the fight against Justino before Smith accepted.

Tate took the belt from Holm in March. She has expressed an interest in fighting Justino, but that wasn’t going to happen after she became champion.

Justino has now won 16 straight fights since losing her professional debut in 2005, including four in a row by first-round knockout. The streak was only interrupted by a no-contest that resulted from a positive steroid test after Justino defended her Strikeforce belt in 2011.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj