UFC president Dana White was a guest on “UFC Unfiltered,” a podcast hosted by Matt Serra and Jim Norton, recently and put to rest some of the talk regarding Cris “Cyborg” Justino.
While the Brazilian has been very outspoken regarding her next fight and her desire to compete for UFC female featherweight gold, White told the podcast that she’s already been offered that – twice in fact.
“I offered Cris a title fight at 145 a month ago,” White said. “She had eight weeks to get ready and she said she couldn’t make the weight. She said she couldn’t make 145.
“Then I offered her another title fight for Brooklyn (in 2017). She turned that down. She’s turned down two 145-pound title fights.”
White even disclosed who Cyborg’s opponents would have been, saying the first fight would have featured Holly Holm while the second was Germaine de Randamie.
“We offered her a 145 pound-title shot, she had eight weeks to get ready for it and she said that’s not enough time to make the weight. ‘I can’t make the weight in eight weeks’” White said. “This whole thing about making weight. When we did the deal with Cyborg we sat down with her and said ‘Listen, if you can make it down to 135 pounds maybe we can hire a dietician and help you get there and get you in the mix, get a couple of fights with these girls and then fight Ronda for the title.’ She was all in. That’s why we signed the deal.”
White did add that Holm’s coach, Mike Winklejohn, actually pulled the plug on that bout before Cyborg could turn it down.
Cyborg has fought twice at 140 pounds for the UFC, earning a pair of wins in Brazil.
