Women’s UFC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg has been looking to lock down a super fight against women’s UFC bantamweight title holder Amanda Nunes. While it initially appeared that the two champions would possibly meet inside the octagon, Nunes now appears to have other interests.
Cyborg has now come forward to give her thoughts on the matter. Speaking to Combate, Cyborg revealed that she believes Nunes was simply attempting to promote herself by started conversations of the super fight.
Check out a translation of Cyborg’s statement to Combate down below:
“I’m starting to think that Amanda Nunes just started naming me to negotiate a new contract with the UFC. Like many other girls, she’s using my name to create her brand, she says she sent a text message to Dana White saying she wanted to fight back soon and she did not want to be waiting for a fight but when you look at the girl’s record and see her record, she only fought once in 2017 … UFC 224 will happen almost a year after her last fight against Valentina – a fight against a flyweight that many people think she lost.
“Before giving fight against Holly Holm, the coach of Amanda left giving interviews saying that she wanted to face me. Immediately after the fight against Holly, I gave her the date of July, and she was quiet. You can see my conversation with her girlfriend on Twitter. When the UFC called me to accept the fight at the time and save UFC 222, I asked Amanda Nunes, but suddenly she said she was not ready, and the UFC did not get her to accept the fight.
“In an interview Amanda tells people that she just wanted to go back to the octagon to stay active and that’s why she wanted to fight me. But then she gives another interview saying she needs time to gain weight before she agrees to face me.
“People need to understand that my team of entrepreneurs has spent a lot of time trying to make this fight happen. On July 7th it will be almost six months since I defeated Holly and since Amanda challenged me, that is, more than enough time for her to adjust to featherweight. Amanda is not a small cock-crow, she just did not have success in the feathers to win a title shot against me. When Amanda canceled the fight against Valentina, I did not care what she said, but people in her team told me she had a bad weight loss and not that “sinus” excuse she gave to get away from fight.
“I’m targeting a date in July. Amanda is preparing to compete in UFC 224 instead of accepting our fight and starting to promote it. The reality is that my team has been trying to get it right since December. If Amanda is saying that she needs more time than July (six months) to stay in the weight and fight then she shows that she has no plans to return to the bantamweight after our fight.
“If Nunes plans to make this superlute happen in January, I think she needs to be honest with the fans and wander the bantamweight belt because there are girls, like Ketlen Vieira, who have won the title shot and do not deserve to wait a year for that.
“If Amanda is not ready to fight at UFC 226 in Las Vegas, I have to tell my team that I want to fight whoever is ready. I explained to my manager that if Amanda wins in Rio and refuses to fight in July, I will not invest my time trying to carry out this fight. We can retake this if Amanda decides to return to featherweight and establish herself as challenging number one. Amanda’s legal challenge to Pennington in Brazil is to give my team the opportunity to see the fan base she has in the country and how much pay- per-view it will be able to sell in the United States, giving us a better sense of the side of it in the superlot.”
