One year ago, the biggest fight in women's MMA (and arguably the entire sport) was a potential matchup between crossover superstar and then UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey vs. Invicta featherweight champion Cris Cyborg. The bout had been talked about since their Strikeforce days, and when Cyborg signed with the UFC, it looked to be only a matter of time until the two finally locked horns.

But as Gennady Golovkin can tell you, things are rarely as simple as they seem in the world of fight sport. Rousey wanted the fight to be contested at 135 pounds and UFC President Dana White was also demanding it. There were arguments about statements made and fights offered. Ultimately, instead of a Rousey-Cyborg superfight the UFC matched Rousey with Holly Holm, a rising contender and former boxing champion but still (the general logic went among the fans at the time) an opponent Rousey would dispatch en route to building an even bigger fight with Justino.

Of course, Holm went and kicked Rousey's head and that particular apple cart over with a stunning six-minute demolition of the champion. Suddenly, Holm was the new champion and the Rousey-Cyborg fight was dead in the water. Since then, Rousey receded from public view, was open about struggling with depression and thoughts of suicide, and has yet to return to action. In contrast, Cyborg went on to make her UFC debut by dispatching Leslie Smith in 81 seconds at UFC 198, and this weekend, she will headline her first UFC event. In a recent interview with Globo, White discussed the UFC's plans with Cyborg going forward.

"Cyborg is a huge star in the sport of mixed martial arts and in women's MMA. She mows people over very quickly and very violently. People are waiting to see her get challenged, and we're trying to challenge her. I think that when you talk about a headliner, somebody as big and as dominant and as scary as Cyborg is — she is a definite headliner — and obviously she is Brazilian, and she's a big star down there. She's a big star all over the world."

"The dream fight for Cyborg is obviously the Ronda Rousey fight, but there's other big names out there like Miesha Tate, Holly Holm and possibly — and I know Brazilians don't like seeing Brazilians fight — but possibly Amanda Nunes."

Though Cyborg is universally recognized as the best women's featherweight in the world, the UFC has no 145-pound women's division, and White reaffirmed in the interview that he doesn't foresee expanding the current women's divisions in the near future. Even if they do, he says it's far more likely that the UFC adds a flyweight division rather than a featherweight one. Considering this and Cyborg's inability to make 135 lbs., fights with Holm, Tate, or Nunes would most likely take place at a catchweight of 140 lbs., the weight limit of Cyborg's previous UFC fight and her upcoming one this weekend as well.

"I think that Cyborg has made it clear that she can't make 135 pounds. We do have a couple of really good girls at 135 that would like to fight Cyborg, that would like to move up and take that challenge."

White goes on to say that it's not a lack of challengers for Cyborg that's the problem but rather making sure they are promoting the right fight at the right time. Perhaps this is recognition from White of the opportunity lost when they missed out on making the Rousey-Cyborg fight last year. He does mention in the interview that he is confident Rousey will return before the end of the year to fight Amanda Nunes for the bantamweight championship and that after that, they can look at a Cyborg-Rousey fight again.

"I think in a perfect world, what everybody would love to see is Ronda vs. Cyborg, so everybody is waiting — I'm sure Cyborg is, too — is the return of Ronda Rousey. When she does return, I'm sure [Rousey is] gonna want to fight for the title, probably defend it and then maybe fight Cyborg. I don't know. We'll see how this thing plays out."

There is still no timetable for Rousey's return but Cyborg fights Lina Lansberg in the main event of UFC Fight Night 95 this Saturday in Brasilia, Brazil.

MUST-READ STORIES

Results. UFC Fight Night: Poirier vs. Johnson went down on Saturday. Here are the results.

Bit his style. Chael Sonnen says he returned to MMA out of "pure anger."

Now he gets Nog. Alexander Gustafsson clears things up, says he wasn't "even close to retiring" after Cormier loss.

#Badgirlclub. Tito Ortiz fires back at Chael Sonnen for calling him out.

I believe it's now called "gangsterweight". King Mo says he is down for a moneyweight fight against Shane Carwin.

EXTRA CREDIT READING

King of Bros. Chuck Mindenhall spoke to former UFC fighter Matt Riddle about his new occupation as a professional wrestler.

MEDIA STEW

Bellator highlights.

BJ interview with Inside MMA.

Highlights from Legacy 59 this past Friday. It was a fun one.

TTTHS.

Pretty nice little fan highlight for the return of Carwin.

The Menace is on that Action Bronson lifestyle.

LISTEN UP

6th Round.

Parting Shot.

Bushido.

TWEETS

I don't hate it.

@FollowTheMenace when I'm done with Oliveira I'm your next opponent. You won but you don't disrespect a man while he's down. #huntingseason — Will Brooks (@TRILLwillbrooks) September 18, 2016

Dr. Pat making a very valid point about Chris Wade's tactics.

If you want to be the dude grappling with Khabib Nurmagomedov's training partner of decades, alright, do you.#UFCHidalgo — Patrick Wyman (@Patrick_Wyman) September 18, 2016

Peak Tito.

Your mouth wrote a check your ass can't cash! @ChaelSonnen @BellatorMMA it will go down.I'm going to slap the gangster out of u.#BadGirlclub — Tito Ortiz (@titoortiz) September 17, 2016

How polite.

Welcome to bellator! Looking forward to you proving urself in this division, will be great to meet you down the roadhttps://t.co/57TyjzlcPY — Liam McGeary (@liam_mcgeary) September 16, 2016

I support this too. Chael in Bellator is awesome.

@arielhelwani @ChaelSonnen gangster weight sounds good to me — Rory MacDonald (@rory_macdonald) September 16, 2016

Cyborg fight week. Get hype!

I agree, but it wasn't that long ago there were no divisions in the UFC. Support wmma n watch @fs1 sat #ufcbrasiliahttps://t.co/spGrtD67yB — #ufcbrasilia (@criscyborg) September 19, 2016

今日はこのMade in Japanで仲間のbday partyに！目立つ！これは俺しか着られへん！笑pic.twitter.com/P2tbyCVJx3 — Teruto Ishihara (@teruto_ko) September 19, 2016

Bourdain is dope.

@GilbertMelendez good times! Thanks for playing! You guys eat like it’s your last meal! — Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) September 18, 2016

Long read but worth it from Cat Zingano.

Damn.

Stay humble.

Even the champ cleans the mats. @rvcasport A photo posted by Mikebisping (@mikebisping) on Sep 16, 2016 at 12:05pm PDT

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Cody East (12-2-0) vs. Curtis Blaydes (5-1-0); UFC Fight Night 96, October 1.

Tyron Woodley (16-3-0) vs. Stephen Thompson (13-1-0); UFC 205, November 12.

A.J. McKee (5-0-0) vs. Emmanuel Sanchez (13-3-0); Bellator 166, December 2.





TODAY IN MMA HISTORY 2007: Kenny Florian submitted Din Thomas with a rear-naked choke in the main event of UFC Fight Night 11. This was also the event Chris Leben KO'd Terry Martin in one of the more memorable highlights of his career. 2009: Vitor Belfort KO'd Rich Franklin in the main event of UFC 103. Originally the fight was supposed to be a rematch between Franklin and Dan Henderson but the UFC changed it after fan disinterest.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Just build her a division. For what reason would you not give her a belt? This is asinine.

Hope y'all had a good weekend. We're back at it again for yet another fight week. Until tomorrow, you stay classy, planet Earth.

If you find something you'd like to see in the Morning Report, just hit me up on Twitter @JedKMeshew and let me know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram and add us on Snapchat at MMA-Fighting because we post dope things and you should enjoy them.