Combat sports can be one of the most frustrating sports to be a fan of sometimes. Countless times throughout history, fight fans have been teased by the prospects of blockbuster clashes, only for circumstances to intervene or cause the fight to take place with considerably less prestige than it would have had.
Think Liddell vs Silva in the final of the PRIDE 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix, Couture vs Emelianenko, Joshua vs Wilder with both men undefeated, all could have been landmark moments in combat sports if not for a few intervening factors.
The point being that unlike most other sports, there is no obligation or guarantee that a match is going to happen, there’s no schedule and no fixture list so when conversations begin to arise surrounding a super-fight, fans tend to be cautiously optimistic.
Which makes the current talks surrounding a bout between Boxing’s undisputed world lightweight champion Katie Taylor and current Bellator and former UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino all the more intriguing as rarely do separate promoters express such quick interest in making a bout.
This all started in an interview with ‘Cyborg’ leading up to her most recent title defence at Bellator 249. The Brazilian said ‘I like to have challenges and I really want a boxing fight. I love challenges. I’ve got Arlene Blencowe next in MMA, but if we can do the (Taylor) fight, it will be amazing.’
Taylor’s promoter Eddie Hearn would immediately show interest in the bout, tweeting out ‘Let’s do it!’ in response to the interview. Following Bellator 249, Bellator president Scott Coker revealed in the post-fight press conference that he and Hearn were already in talks with the promise that the ‘dialogue’ would continue as soon as the conference had finished.
With both promoters expressing interest in the bout in a matter of days, the prospect of Taylor vs Cyborg is already being hotly debated with fans and pundits alike already taking to social media to weigh the two fighters’ chances against each other.
Despite this, no fight is confirmed until the bell rings and there are still plenty of factors that could threaten to derail the proceedings before they have even started.
The first being that Taylor is already booked for another fight, a November 14th clash with WBA mandatory challenger Miriam Gutierrez. If Gutierrez were to win, the ‘Cyborg’ fight could still take place, but a considerable amount of shine would be taken off of the bout.
The second issue is the weight difference between the two fighters. ‘Cyborg’ is the champion of Bellator’s 145-pound division, but MMA fans will know that even that requires a strenuous weight cut from the Brazilian as ‘Cyborg’ said in the same interview that she walks around at 170 pounds.
By comparison, Taylor has said in the past that she walks around at 140 pounds. Taylor has won a world championship at that weight but it is questionable if ‘Cyborg’ will even be able to get down to 140 pounds as she was a significant reason why the UFC introduced a Women’s Featherweight division in the first place as ‘Cyborg’ simply couldn’t physically get down to 135 pounds to compete in the promotion’s Bantamweight division.
In order for the fight to go ahead, either Taylor would have to go up in weight, ‘Cyborg’ would have to go even further down or the bout could potentially take place at catchweight, which is a previously agreed weight by both fighters that does not line up with traditional weight classes.
The final present obstacle is Scott Coker’s press conference claim that he would agree to the bout with the caveat that there would be a return fight in an MMA cage. Coker attributed this to his belief that as part of the infamous Conor McGregor-Floyd Mayweather fight, there should have also been an MMA fight between the two as part of the deal.
In my opinion, it is extremely unlikely that Coker will get his way on that front. Coker himself before making the point questioned if it would be a deal-breaker and a member of the media at the conference would immediately doubt Hearn’s willingness to place one of his most valuable fighters into a completely new environment, especially after Cyborg scored her first submission victory in the aforementioned Bellator 249 title defence.
If the fight were to take place, it could potentially be the most high-profile women’s combat sports event of all time but until that point, with all of the details of the bout still left to iron out, it is probably for the best if fight fans treat this like any other major bout and continue to remain cautiously optimistic.
The Inbound Observer 