Amanda Nunes is confident that Cris Cyborg doesn’t pose any threat to her.
Following Cris Cyborg’s win over former bantamweight champ, Holly Holm at UFC 219, the name that hovered around to be her next challenger is bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes. UFC president Dana White said its the match-up should happen next, but Cyborg herself turned down the idea of it.
In fact, there are still some major obstacles to clear before this bout is made, Nunes’ head coach at (ATT) American Top Team, Conan Silveira, is very confident it’ll happen.
Previously, Amanda Nunes declared that she wasn’t interested in fighting Cris Cyborg because Cyborg wasn’t the 145-pound champion. Now she has the belt on her waist, Nunes has come out publicly stating an interest in the bout.
Amanda Nunes coach Din Thomas recently speaking on The Morning Wood Show podcast, he was with Amanda Nunes before UFC 219 event, and the bantamweight champion said she wanted to fight Cyborg because she doesn’t see the threat of fighting a current champ Cris Cyborg. (transcript via MMAFighting)
“For the longest time, everybody’s been saying that Amanda didn’t want to fight Cyborg,” said Thomas. “I don’t really know how that rumor got started but everybody thought that, but I was hanging out with Amanda two weeks ago and I was at her crib and she was like, ‘Hey, I want to fight Cyborg. I hope she wins.’
“It wasn’t on no beef, she was just like, ‘I want to fight whoever wins.’ I was like, ‘You want to fight Cyborg?’ and she said, ‘Yeah I want to fight Cyborg. I don’t see what the threat is.’ That’s what she was telling me.
“For her to want that fight, I was like, hell yeah, let’s get this fight. She doesn’t see the threat that everybody thought was there for her. She doesn’t see it and I love that about Amanda when it comes to this fight. I think she presents way more problems than people think that she can give Cyborg.”
Nunes last fought back in September at UFC 215 where she defended the title for the second time against Valentina Shevchenko and won the bout via a split decision verdict.
Nunes used to fight at 145 pounds but moved to 135 pounds in pursuit of UFC gold, which she won back in 2016 by defeating the now-retired Miesha Tate.
Reigning queen Cris Cyborg, prefer to fight a top contender in her weight class instead of a super fight with Nunes. Cyborg showed her interest in Megan Anderson as her next opponent and announced she verbally accepted the fight, shortly after, Anderson shoot down the rumor.
Cyborg was previously set to fight Megan Anderson at UFC 214, but personal issues forced Anderson to removed from the bout. Rather, Cyborg accepted a fight against Tonya Evinger for the vacant title.
“She smashed her but Tonya hung in there,” said Thomas. “She hung in there. She took a lot of punishment too but she hung in there. But even at that moment I was like, You know what? Amanda would have done a lot better. Now I’m thinking, you know what? I think Amanda’s gonna kick her ass. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Cyborg doesn’t have anyone else to fight really that anyone is gonna really care about.”
Do you think this super fight should materialize?
