Despite the absence of Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg refuses to be the new face of women's MMA

Cris Cyborg believes there should be more than one face of women's mixed martial arts as opposed to the days of Ronda Rousey.

Rousey (12-2 record in MMA) was a major pioneer of women's MMA and is a big reason why the UFC is even having female competitors in the octagon today.

UFC president Dana White previously said that the company would never have female fighters until he saw the marketability of Rousey and introduced the women's bantamweight division in 2012.

However, "Rowdy" was the only real figure in women's MMA that everyone knew about during her pomp as she was hyped up by both the UFC and the mainstream media.

That is one reason why Cyborg (17-1 record in MMA) does not want to be regarded as the new face of MMA as she prepares to take on Tonya Evinger at UFC 214 for the women's featherweight title.

"I believe women's MMA can't have just one face, there are several athletes in the promotion," Cyborg said, as quoted on MMAFighting. "What happened was, they made Ronda the face of (women's) MMA and she lost twice and doesn't want to come back."

"It's not about one face only. When you make it about one face and she leaves, you miss it."

The former Strikeforce and Invicta FC featherweight queen also plans on representing every woman as a champion when she emerges victorious against Evinger.

"We have several athletes, it can't be just one person being the face of (women's) MMA," she added.

"I will represent every woman with my belt there, just like every woman in the UFC represent every MMA fighter. It's bad when you make one person the face of (women's) MMA."

UFC 214 takes place on Saturday (29 July).