It has been over a year since we've seen Cristiane Santos in the Strikeforce cage. 'Cyborg' has dominated the competition during her run but that dominance also left her without a clear list of legitimate challengers. This lack of challengers led to a lack of fights and Santos looking at options outside of MMA, including a rumored near-deal with the WWE.
Now, Cyborg has her new deal in place and her manager, Rudimar Fedrigo, is making some crazy claims in the media. Via Tatame:
"The negotiation is concluded successfully. A proposal has been made, after a long time of arguing, and it was accepted. Cris signed her new contract and now she's waiting to be called back for her next fight", explains Rudimar. "Cris ain't just another athlete... Besides being the champion, she's the highest paid female athlete in the world. The negotiation lasted for like a year, but now it's all set".
You can really only hope that this was an error in translation and he simply meant highest paid female mixed martial artist.
The Forbes "Highest Paid Female Athletes" list came out last month with tennis superstar Maria Sharapova in first place at $25 million running all the way to #10 and golfer Paula Creamer's $5.5 million.
I seriously doubt that Cyborg's deal broke the entire pay structure of MMA by putting her anywhere near those women.