Cris Cyborg: “UFC Matchmaking Is All About Politics, I Might Try Other Promotions Out”
Cris Cyborg is one of the most dominant UFC female fighters ever. After her brutal KO at UFC 222 over Yana Kunitskaya, Cyborg was asked to fight Amanda Nunes on September 8th. Of course, she accepted. But, Nunes wanted the fight in December! So did UFC! Two superstars are scheduled to face at UFC 232 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 29th.
Yet, this ruins Cyborg’s plans. Cris Cyborg doesn’t want to wait nine months! She would like to get one more fight in the meantime. If UFC wants to keep her in the promotion, they should try a bit harder. Here is what she said on MMA Tonight on SiriusXM Fight Nation recently. (via MMAFighting.com)
“The day [Nunes] signed the deal, the UFC reached out to my manager, and then two days before, they asked me to fight Amanda Nunes on Sept. 8th,” Cyborg said. “I said, ‘Yes, I’m ready. I want to fight.’ After that, they contacted us and said Amanda cannot fight in September, she wants to fight in December.
“For me to wait for a fight for nine months, I’m not getting paid since this last fight against Yana Kunitskaya. I don’t think it’s fair to wait for nine months to fight. I can fight! I don’t have any injuries. I’m healthy, I can fight, and just because Amanda isn’t ready.
“I would like to fight before. I would like to fight her but if she’s not ready, if she cannot fight now, I would like to fight before. Or if they want me to sit down nine months, I think it has to be worth it.”
The famous Bantamweight queen was angry like a tiger one more time. Despite Cris Cyborg was under contract, a Featherweight title fight between Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie was held at UFC 208. The excuse – Cyborg was unable to fit the proposed timeline!
Cris Cyborg won the vacant belt at UFC 214 versus Tonya Evinger. It looked like the situation was calming down… But Cyborg says everything is politics. She is ready to fight but nobody cares.
“Before Dana White gave the belt to Ronda, I was already the champion in my division, 145, and I think all my fans know what I deal with every day,” Cyborg said. “Like with Ronda or other fights, it’s all politics. I’m the champion a long time, 12 years undefeated, and if a fight doesn’t happen with girls like this, it’s politics. You can see how it’s politics because I’m ready to fight now and I have to wait nine months and you can see Colby Covington, they’re gonna take his belt – and he got the belt 45 days ago – because Woodley is ready to fight and [Colby] said he’s not ready so they took the belt. This is an example of how politics works.”
Cris Cyborg also considers pursuing her luck elsewhere. She has only two fights left under her UFC contract. She has many unfinished goals in her career. Leaving UFC might open up new possibilities.
“I still have a lot of things left in my career,” Cyborg concluded. “I have two fights left in the UFC and I hope this works well. I have a dream fight boxing fight and I am for sure gonna fight a boxing fight. If it’s not gonna be the UFC, maybe I’ll fight Julia Budd in Bellator. I think I have a lot of doors I can fight [in]. Maybe I could do a Grand Prix, more than one fight per day in Japan. A lot of things can happen. I don’t think this is the finish of my career, this is just one more challenge in my career. I’ve already overcome a lot of things in my career, and if I don’t fight in the UFC anymore, for sure I’m gonna find other ways to keep growing my legacy.”
Do you think UFC and Cris Cyborg will settle things down? Would you like to see her in some other promotion?
