Cris Cyborg walked through Lina Lansberg in a longer, but just as one-sided contest, like all of her fights for the past several years. But the real story for Cyborg this past week seemed to be the week of the fight having to do with her making weight.





In the past year, trying to head off any possible tragedies before they happen, the UFC has gotten more hands-on than ever before on the subject of weight management. They've adopted guidelines, moved the timing of the actual weigh-ins up so fighters have to spend less time at a dehydrated weight. This has allowed more time to rehydrate before fighting. It's hard to say that this has directly led to a higher quality of fighting, but logically it should and there have been some great shows since the changes were put in place.





Everything about Cyborg's last week was contradictory to everything about extreme weight cutting that the company has tried to put in the past.





And therein lies the Cyborg quandary.





Cyborg burst on the U.S. scene more than eight years ago with a win over Shayna Baszler . Since then she's won 13 fights in a row, 14 if you include a 16-second knockout win that was overturned for a Stanazolol violation which also resulted in a one-year suspension.





In late 2012, when the UFC made the call to introduce women, due to the marketing and fighting potential of Ronda Rousey , the hoped-for debut opponent was to be Cyborg. Of course that never happened. For years, that was the biggest women's fight possible. As Rousey got more popular, the potential of the fight became bigger, probably growing from maybe being able to do 500,000 buys at first, to triple that or more today.





It's funny how things happen. Perhaps if Cyborg fought Rousey on that first women's main event, she'd have won, and there would be no Rousey phenomenon. Womens' fighting would have stayed most likely, but perhaps a lot of things, such as deepening the talent pool and adding the second division wouldn't have come nearly as fast.





In 2013, when Cyborg was managed by Tito Ortiz , he put her on a scale for the world to see, trying to push for the Rousey fight at 145 pounds, something both the UFC and Rousey at the time were against.





The scale showed Cyborg, while out of training for a specific fight, at 160 pounds of solid muscle. Three years later, that number is closer to 175 pounds. At 160, there was the idea that she could slowly cut her natural body weight down five to ten pounds, and be within shooting of the magic 135. That was the highest poundage UFC was booking women fighters. Today, the idea her slowly cutting down and making 135 is ludicrous. And really, so is the Rousey fight. The size discrepancy was always an issue, but the larger Cyborg got, the more it was an issue not likely to be rectified.

Cyborg headlined in Brazil as the star of Saturday's show. She was pushed on the UFC broadcast as possibly the most dominating woman fighter in the world, and you may not even need the word woman in the description.





When she got to the second round on Saturday in a fight she was dominating, it was only her second time being out of the first round since the summer of 2010. She's never lost a round since she arrived in the U.S. She was in a disadvantage position for brief seconds with Gina Carano , that she largely put herself in, and was quickly out of.

But what do you do with her? Even cutting to 145 seems not advisable to someone who was reportedly 168 pounds ten days before this fight, let alone 140, even if she made the latter weight. The whole idea of 140 was for her to try fighting at that weight and eventually move to 135, where she would have plenty of name opponents.





There is nobody the UFC can get worthy of her having to torture herself to 141 pounds. With all her success, it's now been more than seven years since she's been in a fight that really got the public's attention. If the UFC isn't going to add a 145-pound division, or even if it is, it looks like we may be destined for Cyborg to go untouched in this sport for years, but never have fights anything past her wrecking people too small for her.





But if nothing else, the concern for health of all involved should remove the 141 pound catch weight from her future fights. She's had nearly four years to try and hit 135. It's not happening. There is no reason to pretend it can. Nor should Rousey, Miesha Tate Amanda Nunes or Holly Holm face someone who is 14 to 18 percent larger to prove something anymore than Georges St-Pierre should face Jon Jones





If the idea is to showcase, then find some women close to her weight as opposed to getting much smaller women to move up. She should fight at 145 to 150, or whatever the weight that would be that she can make in the same healthy manner UFC wishes to have its male competitors cut to.





Let's look at how Fortunes Changed for the Stars of Saturday's Fight Night in Brasilia, Brazil:





CRIS CYBORG - Saturday's show was marketed Cyborg in Brazil. The big question is the marketability of her as a headliner, as opposed to just somebody fighting underneath on a big show. Cyborg and Gina Carano set what was at the time the Showtime ratings record in 2009, for the first major woman's main event on a significant show in U.S. MMA history.





But there is nobody there to face next, past sacrificial lambs, at least in this sport. Joanna Baars beat Cyborg in a kickboxing match a few years ago, but Baars is 1-3 in MMA and hasn't done this sport in years. Nobody else has given her a fight.





What Saturday's card will show is whether people want to see a show built around Cyborg destroying people, or if people want something else in main events and her one-sided fights should be more of an attraction underneath.





RENAN BARAO - The one-time seemingly unbeatable bantamweight with a 34-1 record has become a mere mortal in recent years, now as a featherweight with a 36-4 record. He got a decision win over The one-time seemingly unbeatable bantamweight with a 34-1 record has become a mere mortal in recent years, now as a featherweight with a 36-4 record. He got a decision win over Phillipe Nover that neither hurt him, nor did it help convince anyone that his loss to Jeremy Stephens was just growing pains of getting acclimated to a higher weight class.





As far as what is next, he would make a great test for Doo Ho Choi (14-1), who has three straight first-round knockouts in UFC competition. It's more a test to see how real Choi is, but Barao still has a name. If Choi can win, he'd be set up for big fights. And if he can't beat Barao, he's not going to beat the top tier in the division at this point.





ROY NELSON - Even though Even though Nelson is 40, and has lost four of six, his knockout of Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva keeps him in the game at a time when another loss would have been relegated him to facing second-tier heavyweights.

Nelson (22-13), has faced every top heavyweight in the company except Cain Velasquez, which makes no sense now, and Travis Browne (18-5-1), which is right now a viable fight. Other potential fights would include Andrei Arlovski (25-13), who Nelson lost to in 2008, and Ben Rothwell (36-10), who Nelson lost to a year earlier.





FRANCISCO TRINALDO - Trinaldo (21-4) has snuck up on the lightweight division with seven straight wins, one of the longest active winning streaks in the UFC.





A good next opponent would be Evan Dunham (18-6), who is coming off a win the week before over Rick Glenn , his fourth in a row. At 38, Trinaldo's time can't be wasted at this point, so he needs a strong opponent right now.





JUSSIER FORMIGA - (19-4), is coming off a solid win over Formiga (19-4), is coming off a solid win over Dustin Ortiz on Saturday in what was mostly a grappling match. While ranked as the No. 3 contender, Formiga has a few things working against him. He's lost to both men ranked above him, Henry Cejudo and Joseph Benavidez . The UFC is now doing a tournament on The Ultimate Fighter to determine the next flyweight contender. After that, the Cejudo vs. Benavidez winner, even though Demetrious Johnson beat both quickly, would figure to get the next shot.



