Cris Cyborg and Tonya Evinger share the same stance on Germaine de Randamie’s short run as the inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s featherweight title holder.
Cyborg and Evinger will do battle tomorrow night (July 29) for the vacant 145-pound gold. The match-up would’ve never happened if de Randamie wasn’t stripped of her title and if Megan Anderson didn’t pull out of UFC 214 due to personal reasons.
Speaking to the media, Cyborg dismissed “The Iron Lady’s” run with the title (via MMAFighting.com):
“I have nothing against her, just that I don’t think she’s the champion. She never fight at 145, she go fight for the belt, and she knew if she was going to fight for the belt, she was supposed to fight me, and she said, ‘No, I hurt my hand, I don’t want to fight her.’ I don’t know, when you hold the belt you fight whoever for the belt.”
Evinger agreed and even said de Randamie herself never felt like a champion.
“I think when you have the belt, you’re supposed to fight the best there is. That’s what being a world champion is, you fight everyone they put in front of you. You never say no to anybody, and I think in Germaine’s case, I think that she just, she knew she wasn’t really the champion, you know what I mean? I think she knew she wasn’t going to win that fight, or she didn’t have the confidence she was going to win that fight or whatever, so I think she pulled out for that reason.”
