Bellator women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg had to deal with some adversity ahead of her Bellator 300 title defense against Cat Zingano.
Cyborg vs. Zingano has been a fight many fans have wanted to see for years and it finally came to fruition on Saturday in San Diego. Cyborg entered the scrap as a sizeable betting favorite and she proved why as she scored a first-round TKO over Zingano to defend her belt.
Although it looked like a flawless performance, after the win, Cris Cyborg revealed she was sick and had tested positive for COVID-19 just two weeks prior to the event.
“This fight, I got very sick, two weeks before. I got COVID, and I was staying in bed for one week,” Cyborg said to MMA on Sirius XM.
Cris Cyborg says while she was bedridden she was watching all of Cat Zingano’s fight so she felt very confident heading into the matchup.
Cyborg and Zingano had a verbal altercation
After the win, however, Cyborg and Zingano had a verbal altercation, which surprised the Bellator champ. Speaking at the post-fight press conference, Cyborg went up to thank Zingano for taking the fight, which Zingano didn’t take kindly to.
“Usually, I really don’t hate my opponents,” Cyborg explained at the post-fight press conference for Bellator 300. “I just said thank you to her for accepting the fight to fight each other. Then she said, ‘I don’t want to be your friend.’ She was saying something like I was a stalker, something like this.
“The reality is she started this. She started saying bad things about me, and then I don’t know the reason, she tried to make this personal, and I don’t have anything against Cat Zingano. I always promoted her the nice way. She’s the girl who beat Amanda Nunes, she was the girl who beat Miesha Tate, she’s a huge name in the sport. And I’m going to continue that. I’m not going to change what I think about her. It doesn’t matter what happened tonight,” Cyborg added.
With the win, Cris Cyborg improved to 27-2 and one No Contest in her career. She’s also a perfect 6-0 in Bellator and has defended her belt five times.
