Marloes Coenen is considered as one of the best fighters and pioneers in Women’s Mixed Martial Arts, as she has fought the best of the best in multiple divisions in the last 16 years. The former Strikeforce champion recently spoke out about the UFC’s treatment of Cris Cyborg and their reluctance to start a new division around the dominant champion.
Coenen, who fought Cyborg twice and remains the only person to last 4 rounds with her, says the UFC should give women more divisions.
"I think it's a very big disgrace for the UFC that they don't build a division around her at 145,” Coenen told MMA Mania. “I mean she has proven to be attracting people, wanting to tune in to watch her fight, then they come up with this catch weight at 140?”
“I mean come on, take us women in the sport seriously and give us more divisions,” she said. “Look at Bellator, they opened up the 145, I don't have to make the 135. I can fight at my own weight."
Coenen also shared a story from her 2013 bout against Cyborg at Invicta FC 6.
"I mean 145 is already hell for her,” she said. “The last time I fought her at 145 somebody had seen her making weight and she fell down to the floor and her coaches pulled her up at the arms and they took her legs to make her keep on running. So when I heard she was doing 140 I was really afraid something would happen to her -- thank God it didn't. I think UFC should be better than that."
I personally still don’t understand why the UFC doesn’t just let Cyborg fight in her own weight class. The UFC obviously thinks that Cyborg is a big enough star to her headline her own card last September, but what’s with the insistence of making her cut down 5 more lbs?
Because there’s no women’s featherweight division in the UFC? Well, there isn’t a 140 lb division either, but they didn’t have any problems setting those up and forcing her to cut dangerous amounts of weight.
Those weren’t even ‘super-fights’, where the 145 lb champ would’ve met a fellow champion or a huge star like Ronda Rousey in the middle. Cyborg instead fought Leslie Smith and Lina Lansberg, who said that a bout at 145 lbs wouldn’t have been a problem.
So why risk her health and well being by forcing all these seemingly unnecessary weight cuts? If they’re just using the Invicta FC champ for random on-off bouts, then why not keep it at 145 lbs? If they’re investing on her and building a new division like they did with Rousey, then even better for the athletes.
Cyborg is one of, if not the best and most dominant champions in Women’s MMA. Maybe it’s time they started treating her like one.