Cris Cyborg just wants to fight.
After last defending her women’s featherweight title in March, Cyborg has anxiously been awaiting her next challenge with hopes of competing at UFC 228 on Sept. 8 in Dallas against women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes.
Unfortunately, the fight couldn’t come together on that date and now the UFC is proposing Cyborg wait until December to face Nunes in what would undoubtedly be one of her biggest challenges to date.
“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,” Cyborg said when speaking to Sirius XM recently.
“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.”
Cyborg has aired all sorts of grievances with the UFC since signing to join the promotion after serving as Invicta FC featherweight champion.
This latest issue is mostly around timing and activity as Cyborg would like to compete more often, especially now while she’s still in the prime of her career.
Cyborg says she’s getting really tired of dealing with the politics in the UFC and her frustration is about to boil over.
“Before Dana White gave the belt to Ronda [Rousey], I was already the champion in my division, 145, and I think all my fans know what I deal with everyday,” Cyborg stated. “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.”
"If fights don't happen … it's because it's politics. I'm ready to fight now." — @criscyborg to @MieshaTate and @realOCsports pic.twitter.com/wJMFsfk6IU
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) August 9, 2018
Cyborg hopes to book her next fight sooner rather than later but with only two bouts remaining on her current UFC contract as well as an expiration date on when those fights must happen, she’s already contemplating what comes next.
Cyborg has long talked about pursuing boxing matches in the women’s division and Bellator MMA currently has a women’s featherweight division as well that could present her some new challenges.
“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,” Cyborg said. “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 Cris Cyborg should stay with the UFC or search for new opportunities elsewhere? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
