Women’s featherweight champion has to wait for a super fight with Amanda Nunes.
Cris “Cyborg” Justino defended her featherweight title with a first-round stoppage of Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 222 on March 3 at Las Vegas.
Immediately after the win, Cyborg mentioned the oft-discussed bout with Nunes that she called me out first and I want to fight her. Even UFC resident Dana White was enthusiastic about the idea of two of his top female star meeting in the Octagon.
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes was speaking recently with the UFC Unfiltered podcast, where she revealed why she is interested in her upcoming title defense against Pennington instead Cyborg. However, this fight will have to wait.(Quote Via MMAFighting)
“When I texted Dana White that I wanted the fight, I didn’t have nobody in my division,” said Nunes. “I didn’t even know if I was gonna fight soon. I was concerned with waiting years because I’ve been in that position before, waiting so long for a fight, I don’t want to do it again and stay waiting, waiting, waiting.
“But now, we have Rocky [Pennington] and we have the Brazilian, Ketlen [Vieira] and I feel like my division is starting to grow. If you pay attention, the division’s gonna be awesome and now I have two. I have Rocky and I have Ketlen. Rocky is my next step and I want to see Ketlen after, for sure.”
“I think she’s deserving, after this fight against Rocky,” said Nunes. “She beat the girl that beat me. I think she’s ready and I’m excited to fight her.”
Nunes would still like a shot at Cyborg this year; she felt she needed to fight again soon, instead of waiting for negotiations to play out for a super fight with champ Cyborg. Nunes said she doesn’t have anything personal against Cris Cyborg.
“There’s gonna be a lot of things involved in that,” said the champion. “Having the contract for her, for me, it has to make sense for both of us so we can do this. It’s nothing personal against Cyborg. When you become a professional fighter, you want to become the best, you want to beat the best.
“It’s nothing personal but I feel like there’s a lot of things involved in that and I don’t want to wait for that. I want to keep fighting, I don’t want to wait to negotiate. Right now my division has a new contender and I’m excited for that. Whatever happens after that, we’ll see.”
The UFC 224 pay-per-view is set to take place on Saturday, May 12 in Rio de Janeiro. The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m.
