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Cris Cyborg likely to avoid surgery on injured ankle, may postpone bantamweight plans to return sooner
Nov 3, 2014 - 1:35:40 PM Cris Cyborg likely to avoid surgery on injured ankle, may postpone bantamweight plans to return sooner

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Though Cris Cyborg suffered a ruptured tendon in her left ankle this week, she's hoping to avoid surgery.

The Invicta FC Featherweight Champion hasn't had an MMA fight since July of 2013, and was supposed to make her bantamweight debut at Invicta FC 10 in December. Though the injury made a 135 lb. bout impossible, her manager George Prajin believes she would have been able to fight at featherweight on that card, and thinks she may be able to return by January with basic rehab if the fight is at 145 lbs.

"Knowing Cris, she probably would have fought [in December] on one leg," Prajin said in an interview with ESPN.com. "But it's a struggle to get to 135 pounds already. With her not being able to run on that ankle, it was going to be impossible. I didn't want her to come into that fight heavy. If the fight would have been at 145, she probably would have fought.

"When she can start getting on it again, we'll reevaluate her weight. If we have to postpone a move to 135 pounds and fight at 145, we might consider that. It's already been 15 months since her last fight. This is how she makes money and pays her bills."

Prajin also took the opportunity to take shots at Ronda Rousey as he argued Cyborg is doing everything possible to make that fight happen.

"The UFC bumped Rousey-Zingano to the end of February," Prajin said. "That means Ronda won't fight again until maybe late summer. So, if [Justino] fights at 145 pounds in January, we're really not throwing a wrench into everything. The longer we delay anything though, the more chance there is for Ronda to jump ship and go to Hollywood.

"It just shows you the heart this girl has. She's literally killing herself to try to make this happen. Ronda is not doing s*** trying to make this fight and Cris is over here doing everything, even training on an injured foot. So, I hope to see this fight. It would suck to see Cris go through all this and be left with nothing at the end."

Penick's Analysis: It's good to hear she'll likely avoid surgery, though an ankle injury even without surgery could take significant time to heal up. Now, as it pertains to Rousey, the comments from Prajin continue a series of comments from that camp missing the point. Rousey's under no obligation to do anything to make that fight happen. She's the Champion, Cyborg's got to get to her. If she can prove she can make 135 lbs., the fight's likely to happen. That's it. End of story. Rousey's the UFC's Bantamweight Champion, that's the highest weight class they're promoting, that's just the reality of things. The onus is on Cyborg to get there, or there's no fight to be had.