Ronda Rousey (left) and Cris "Cyborg" Santos would fight, but would the UFC make it happen?

AP (2)

"She wants nothing to do with Ronda Rousey. She does not want to fight Ronda Rousey."

That was UFC president Dana White talking a few weeks ago on the fight promotion's weekly show on Fuel TV, his appearance ostensibly to hype the first women's bout in company history. But his bitter words were not aimed at Liz Carmouche, who'll make history along with Rousey in the main event of UFC 157 on Saturday night in Anaheim, Calif. No, White was trash talking Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, whom he'd like us to believe is afraid of his women's champion.

But Santos isn't the one running scared. The UFC is.

Dana & Co. have a good thing going. They've created an attention-grabbing women's division solely upon the star power of Rousey, the former Olympian with the looks and charisma to draw the interest of the ESPN the Magazine "Body Issue," the HBO show Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and other media avenues that otherwise have little use for this sport. She has captivated the mainstream like no mixed martial artist before her.

Rousey also has dominated her fights like no mixed martial artist before her. You know the resume by now: Six professional bouts, six first-round finishes, five of them in 49 seconds or faster. That's a vital ingredient of the Rousey narrative, even as it relates to her Hollywood red carpet and TV talk show appearances. "I probably get more attention fighting because of how I look," she acknowledges during the HBO show, which has been airing this week. "But if I didn't know how to fight, and I just looked the way I did, no one would know who I am."

If there's a question mark still lingering amid all of the exclamation points in the success story of Ronda Rousey, it has to do with the quality of the opposition she's faced. Sure, her last two conquests have been a reigning champion and a former champ. And Saturday night's opponent, known as the "GirlRilla," is toughness personified, from her military background to the grit she's shown in the cage against more experienced fighters. But those impressive labels - "champion" and "toughness" - are weighed down by the perception that women's MMA is lacking in depth. It's a perception that's both pervasive and longstanding. The women's game was viewed the same way back when a different fighter was the clear alpha female.

That fighter, of course, was Santos. And the only reason we're talking about her in the past tense is that she hasn't won a fight since the summer of 2010. Well, she actually did return to the Strikeforce cage a year and a half after that, and her stay lasted only 16 seconds before she TKO'd Hiroko Yamanaka. But the result later was changed to a no contest after "Cyborg" tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol.

There's the rub. Though Santos is once again eligible to fight after having her license suspended for a year by the California State Athletic Commission, the UFC hasn't exactly rolled out the red carpet. "Cyborg" vs. "Rowdy Ronda" would have been the logical choice for the promotion's historic first. It's the one fight that even those with little regard for women's MMA would be intrigued to see. But Dana White & Co. have invested much in this new division, a venture they had no interest in undertaking until Rousey came along. What if their Olympic-hero, sex-symbol champ were to be vanquished by a brutish Brazilian with the steroid-tainted resume? How does that fit into the marketing plan?

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When will Rousey, 'Cyborg' duke it out?