LAS VEGAS — Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris Justino will seek her second title defense against Faith Van Duin on Thursday at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Although it’s far from official, Justino’s manager George Prajin believes the fight could be Justino’s final stop before entering the UFC.
“The UFC is the biggest stage and Cris is the biggest star,” Prajin told ESPN.com. “They belong together.”
Earlier this year, Justino signed a contract extension with Invicta that included stipulations that would allow her to transfer to the UFC. Justino (13-1) has been pursuing a megafight against UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey for several years.
The main reason the fight hasn’t happened yet is weight. Rousey has turned into one of the UFC’s biggest stars fighting at 135 pounds. Justino has never made that weight, and the UFC does not currently promote a 145-pound weight class.
Justino, 29, weighed 147 pounds when she went to bed on Tuesday, which should make for a relatively smooth cut to 145 pounds for Wednesday’s weigh in. The UFC has made it clear a fight between Rousey and Justino will only happen at 135 pounds, but Prajin believes the promotion would be open to booking Justino at a catchweight fight of 140 pounds prior to a Rousey fight.
The current plan, beyond beating Van Duin (5-1) on Thursday, is for Justino to fight at 140 pounds (hopefully in the UFC) later this year. Prajin even has a potential opponent in mind.
“Miesha Tate said she’d fight Cris at 140 pounds,” Prajin said. “That’s probably the second-biggest fight in women’s MMA, behind Cris and Ronda Rousey. It’s a step in the right direction. That’s what we would love to see in Cris’ next fight. If not Miesha, let’s see if one of the other girls will meet Cris halfway.”
In no way, Prajin said, is Justino giving up on a potential cut to 135 pounds — but he admits no one has any if she’s even physically capable of getting that low. If Justino fights at 140 pounds, however, the team would have a better sense of how realistic 135 is.
“We understand the UFC’s position of not wanting to make a Rousey catchweight fight right now,” Prajin said. “We want to be moving in the right direction. I think a fight at 140 pounds would be a great test for Cris. As long as we continue to fight at 145 pounds, we’re never going to really explore or learn more about Cris’ ability to get to 135. I’m confident she can make 140 pounds and we’ll evaluate 135 from there.”
Another potential hurdle in Justino’s cut to 135 pounds recently came into play, as the UFC’s newly installed anti-doping policy will not allow the use of IV rehydration after Oct. 1. A large majority of UFC fighters currently use IVs after difficult weight cuts.
On Tuesday, Justino admitted the UFC’s new policy could be “a problem.” According to Prajin, the main reason Justino has relied on IVs in the past is she has difficulty maintaining fluids immediately after a cut.
“She can’t tolerate large amounts of fluid,” Prajin said. “Unfortunately, what happens with a lot of fighters when they try to rehydrate orally is they throw it up. The IV procedure is beneficial for her to take the fluids and keep the fluids. She could possibly do [a cut to 135] without it, but that’s something we would want to test.
“It throws a wrench into things, but I’m not going to say it’s a bad thing if at the end of the day, it’s implemented for the health of the athletes.”
Of course, a loss to Van Duin would also throw a major wrench into Justino’s future, but the New Zealand featherweight would have to pull off a massive, massive upset to play spoiler.
Van Duin, 29, is relatively new to combat sports, having only trained mixed martial arts for a little more than three years. She made her professional debut in 2013 and admits the first words that came to mind when she got the Justino fight was, “Oh, s—.” (Van Duin said she’s grown far more confident during preparations for Justino).
Ultimately, Prajin believes nothing will prevent a future matchup between Rousey and Justino. Not Van Duin, not Bethe Correia (whom Rousey is scheduled to fight on Aug. 1) and not any sort of weight issue. He’s not sure when it will happen, only that it will.
“My outlook on it is if you’re the best in the world, or claim to be the best in the world, you want to fight the best,” Prajin said. “I think Ronda is a competitor. If she walks through Bethe in August, she’ll get a little bored with the competition she’s been facing. Being the competitor that she is, having that drive to be the best and be acknowledged as the best — it will make this fight inevitable. I see that in Cris, and I think that’s the factor that will ultimately get her to 135 pounds. She feels like she can’t retire without this fight happening and I feel the same is true with Ronda. If, for some reason, Cris is physically unable to get to 135, the ball will be in Ronda’s court and eventually, it will happen.”
Courtesy of: ESPN Go