The main card of UFC 198 has a special catchweight attraction – former Strikeforce champion Cris Cyborg (15-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) is making her long-awaited promotional debut against the ever-durable Leslie Smith (8-6-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC). This 140-pound catchweight fight appears as a main-card warm up for the highly anticipated main event between Fabricio Werdum and Stipe Miocic.
This fight is very interesting, much has been said about Cyborg and her weight cut down to 140lbs, and it will be very interesting to see how this one plays out. The main card for UFC 198: Werdum vs. Miocic airs live on pay-per-view on Saturday, May 14th at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT.
How do these two stack up?
Justino: 30 years old | 5’8″ | 69″ reach
Smith: 33 years old | 5’9″ | 67″ reach
What have these two done recently?
Justino: W – Daria Ibragimova (KO) | W – Faith Van Duin (TKO) | W – Charmaine Tweet (TKO)
Smith: W – Rin Nakai (UD) | L – Jessica Eye (TKO) | W – Jessamyn Duke (TKO)
How did these two get here?
Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino is the scariest fighter in the history of WMMA. Since her first win in 2005, Cyborg has been on a path of domination that has seen her destroy ever fighter put in front of her. Cyborg’s main struggle in the past few years has been to find strong enough opponents to face her, but to her credit, Cyborg has faced all comers and looked assured in the process. Cyborg famously defeated Gina Carano in 2010 and since then fans have been calling for her to fight on the biggest possible stage and tonight she will fight inside a soccer stadium in her native Brazil.
There are a lot of people dismissing Leslie Smith before this fight has even began, but the Cesar Gracie Jiu Jitsu product is a pretty solid fighter. Over the last 5 years, Smith has put on a number of impressive performances. She beat the ever-tough Raquel Pennington and looked solid against Sarah Kaufman even though she lost. Smith’s UFC tenure has been very hit and miss, but she has shown good skills at time, particularly against Jessamyn Duke, whom she TKO’ed in the first round.
Why should you care?
This is Cyborg’s UFC debut, hardcore fans should be salivating at the thoughts of the violence that is going to ensue.