Gina Carano is taking a little bit of time off after beating Kelly Kobold 10 days ago, making promotional appearances for the EA video game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. But she'll soon be back in the gym, getting ready to fight Cris Cyborg.
"I'm going to work very hard in the gym to fight Cris Cyborg," Carano told me today. "I'll build a new body that's strong, quick and lean."
Carano had to get naked on the scale to get down to 141 pounds for her fight against Kobold, while Cyborg weighed in at 148.5 pounds for her fight, against Yoko Takahashi. Carano said she's confident that she can fight Cyborg effectively at any weight in that range.
"I thought Cyborg was really quick and fast at 140 and she was a lot slower at 148," Carano said. "I'm going to put on a little muscle and get rid of a bunch of fat."
I've gone on the record as saying that Cyborg, not Carano, is EliteXC's best female fighter, but Carano said she likes her chances -- even though she wouldn't answer when I asked her how, specifically, she would approach a Cyborg fight.
"I'm not going to tell you my game plan -- that's the element of surprise," she said. "Some things I do better than her and some things she does better than me."
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Carano said she thinks the fight will take place "February at the soonest" and that she thinks she'll be in the best shape of her life by then. She also thinks that after having several undercard fights, she can market herself and EliteXC well enough to put her in a main event.
"I hope that it's for the first EliteXC women's title," she said. "If they made that the main event I think that would be huge. And that's why I'm going to hit the gym and be as good as I can because I want to make that fight a big moment in my career. I'm excited about it."
