Ronda Rousey
UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey criticized Cris "Cyborg" Justino, a potential opponent in the future, over her past steroid use. "This girl has been on steroids for so long and [has been] injecting herself for so long that she's not even a woman anymore," she said. Reuters

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey had harsh words for Cris “Cyborg” Justino, a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter who is rumored to be her next opponent.

Rousey, 27, spoke to Yahoo on April 18, in advance of her July 5 title defense against Alexis Davis. However, the conversation turned toward the three women who stand to challenge Rousey if she successfully defends her title: Cyborg, Gina Carano and former boxing champion Holly Holm. The reigning bantamweight champion praised Carano and Holm, but she criticized Cyborg over her alleged steroid use.

“I’ve said before, I don’t call if she’s injecting horse semen into her eyeballs, I’ll fight her, but that’s just my personal decision,” Rousey told Yahoo. “But I can’t make a decision for the whole division. I can’t say it’s the right thing.”

“This girl has been on steroids for so long and [has been] injecting herself for so long that she’s not even a woman anymore,” Rousey added. “She’s an ‘it.’ It’s not good for the women’s division. It’s not good at all.”

In a March 27 interview with Yahoo, Justino admitted to using anabolic steroids before a 2011 fight against Hiroko Yamanaka. At the time, a failed drug test led the California State Athletic Commission to suspend her from competing in the UFC league for one year, and it fined her $2,500. Justino claims she used the illegal substances to make weight.

“I don’t need [steroids] for muscles,” she told Yahoo. “I always had muscles for as long as I remember. It’s how I was born. I did it for the weight. It was a mistake, but it wasn’t to cheat and get muscles. It was weight [loss].”

Rousey believes that the penalties for Justino’s steroid use should have been more severe. “If she comes in the UFC and I beat the [expletive] out of her and then I retire and become an action movie star, then the UFC is still going to be stuck with her,” she said. “The division could die. She could ruin the whole sport. Even though it’s a fight a lot of people want to see, even if I beat the living crap out of her, it won’t be good for the sport because then she’d still be in the UFC.”

Conversely, Rousey said that it would “be a privilege and an honor” to fight Carano, a 32-year-old who last fought the now-defunct Strikeforce in 2009. Ironically, Carano lost that fight to Justino.

In a recent interview with Fox Sports, UFC President Dana White said that he was “very confident” that Carano would return to fight in the UFC, but she stressed that she would be more interested in a title fight than a headline-grabbing bout with Rousey.

“No, this isn’t a ‘I’m coming back just to fight Ronda Rousey.’ [Carano] wants to fight whoever the champ is,” White said.

[h/t For The Win]