It took Ronda Rousey just 54 seconds to do what she does best. It took significantly less than that for her to call out Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos.
Rousey (6-0 MMA, 4-0 SF) on Saturday defended her Strikeforce women's bantamweight title, and again did it with ease, getting former champ Sarah Kaufman (15-2 MMA, 6-2 SF) to tap to her signature armbar less than a minute into the first round in San Diego.
Rousey had been in a relatively new war of words with Santos even before the Kaufman fight. And now that she has cleared her latest hurdle, Rousey wasted no time setting her sights on the Brazilian.
The first problem is that Santos (10-1 MMA, 4-0 SF), the former Strikeforce featherweight titleholder, currently is suspended after testing positive for steroids following a 16-second win over Hiroko Yamanaka this past December. (The fight was overturned to a no contest.) The yearlong shutdown means a potential Rousey-Santos fight is at least four months away, provided Santos gets re-licensed with no delays.
And the second is that Santos has been less than thrilled about the prospect of dropping from 145 to 135, where Rousey now holds the title. That, Rousey said, is too bad.
"She was champion and I knew she was doping, but I couldn't prove it," Rousey said at Saturday's post-event news conference at the Valley View Casino Center. "That was how she wanted to become a champion. Now the situation is changed, and she was stripped of her title for good reason. Now she has to come to me – I don't owe her anything. She needs to fight me more than I need to fight her. There are plenty of girls – they all want to beat me up now. Who else is she going to fight, really? She needs to come to me."
Rousey called out Santos in her post-fight interview with Mauro Ranallo on the Showtime broadcast and is firm in her belief that the former champ should have to make the move to 135 if she wants the fight.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker sounds like he would love to see a Rousey-Santos fight – but knows it's a pipe dream until Santos' suspension is lifted.
"That's a fight we definitely have on the radar," Coker told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "Ronda clearly said she wants that fight to happen. But Cyborg is on suspension right now, and until she gets off we really don't have a fight. So when she gets off, we'll start having the conversation."
Coker also believes when the fight does happen, it's destined to become the new high-water mark for a Showtime MMA broadcast.
"I think records are meant to be broken," Coker said. "The Cyborg fight (with Gina Carano) was the highest-rated MMA program on Showtime – for two years, it held the record. Once we get (the Rousey-Santos fight) together, I believe that fight will break the past record."
