Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino reduced to tears as documentary trailer shows her brutal weight cut for UFC 198
Video footage has been released of Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino, who is widely regarded as one of the toughest women in fighting, being reduced to tears as she goes through hell during her weight cut for UFC debut.
Cyborg posted the video, which turned out to be a trailer of an upcoming documentary, showing what she had to go through to be able to fight Leslie Smith at UFC 198 in May in her home country of Brazil.
During the clip Justino looks ghost-like as she drains her body of excess water, causing her to resemble a rag doll and weeping uncontrollably as coaches massage and comfort her through the final few pounds of her hellacious weight cut.
Since the video emerged on social media, a lot of questions have been asked about weight cutting in general and whether it would be better for fighters’ health if they were made to compete at their “walking around” weight, the weight fighters are when they’re not cutting.
“I feel like there should be a weight class every 10 pounds,” said UFC co-commentator Joe Rogan, on his podcast the ‘Joe Rogan Experience’ back in June.
“I think [that would mean] a lot more opportunities, not just for more champions, which I think is better for the sport, but for guys to be able to fight in their actual weight class and be competitive.
"There are some gaps like 185-205 [pounds], that’s a big gap and most guys are probably going to be in the middle. So if you had a 185, 195 and a 205, that’s what it should be. I think it also gives you more opportunity for champion v champion [fights] and for guys to move up or down fairly easily. For example, a 185 guy can move down to 175 much more easily then moving up to 205, and they could go back n’ forth and have some really awesome title unification bouts.”
Cyborg, who went on to beat Smith, was previously fighting in Strikeforce and Invicta in the featherweight division. Many people have been dreaming of seeing her face arguably the most famous female fighter in the world, Ronda Rousey for some time, but the two titans of women’s MMA have never been able to compete due to the Brazilians weight.
Now however, with the UFC allowing Cyborg to fight with them at a 140-pound catch-weight, people are starting to once again dream of a Rousey v Cyborg showdown, which would easily go down as one of the biggest fights in history.