Michael Bisping: Cris Cyborg Is Too Big For 140

Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino is set to fight Lina Lansberg at UFC Fight Night 95 and had some trouble this week trying to make weight for her catchweight bout. Justino, who usually fights at featherweight, walks around at nearly 170 pounds. UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who trains at the same gym, RVCA in Costa Mesa, Calif with Justino, recently spoke about her trying to make weight for this bout. Earlier this week, Justino weighed over 20 pounds and made weight on Friday. Bisping stated that she was running ten miles every day, six in the morning and four miles at night, to make weight and doesn’t know if she should be trying to make this weight on a regular bases due to her size.

“She’s been doing everything she can to make the weight,” Bisping said Thursday at a UFC 204 gym day. “I think the reality is she’s just too big for that weight. But according to Jason Parillo, she will make the weight. She’ll do what’s necessary and she’ll get it done. If she does, god bless her. Good for her.”

While Justino is the featherweight champion in Invicta, the UFC currently does not have that weight division so Justino would have to continue to make 140 or cut way down to bantamweight (135) to fight in the promotion. Bisping understands where both sides are coming from (Justino wanting to fight in the UFC and will make the hard weight cut to fight in the organization while the UFC doesn’t want to create a new division). As Bisping put it, she’s just too big.

“It’s a shame for her, to be honest,” he said. “There isn’t a 145-pound division in the UFC, which is where she fights. She fights at 145. And for her to be in the UFC, they’ve said 140. I understand it from the UFC’s perspective, I understand it from Cyborg’s. She’s just too big. That’s the reality of the situation. She’s just too big.

Bisping will make his first title defense against Dan Henderson at UFC 204.