The message is clear, Tonya Evinger doesn’t back down from challenges.
For years, Evinger has been proving herself outside of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). She reigned as Invicta FC’s bantamweight title holder. “Triple Threat” has gone 10-0, 1 NC in her last 11 outings.
While personal issues knocked Megan Anderson out of her UFC 214 title bout with Cris Cyborg, Evinger’s signing with the UFC can be traced back to Germaine de Randamie being stripped of her women’s featherweight title. “The Iron Lady” refused to fight Cyborg.
During a recent appearance on Flo Combat‘s Top Turtle podcast, Evinger gave her thoughts on the situation with de Randamie:
“I think when you’re champion you should fight everybody that’s put in front of you. You’re the champion, you’re supposed to be the best there is. That’s how I live my career, and I think that’s probably how Cyborg lives her career; we fight everybody who’s put in front of us.”
She went on to say that Cyborg’s past issues with drug tests won’t deter her from wanting to fight for UFC gold.
“People have popped for all kinds of stuff, and not just Cris, several girls in the sport for many different reasons and many guys for many different reasons,” Evinger said. “At the end of the day, she’s in the division, she’s fighting, she signed with the UFC, and she’s passing her drug tests now. Bring up the past and old reasons isn’t going to deter me from fighting her.”
