During the UFC 232 conference call, Amanda Nunes was asked if there is any personal animosity ahead of her fight with Cris Cyborg to which Nunes responded that the fight was strictly business and an opportunity to stake her claim as the greatest female fighter of all time. With Cyborg and her teammates wearing a t-shirt that translates to “Keep Brazil Traitor Free” during Cyborg’s media scrum at her gym recently, it seems fair to say that Cyborg does not feel the same way. Combined with Amanda Nunes cheering for Tecia Torres in a recent bout against Jessica Andrade, Cyborg believes that any doubt of whether or not Amanda Nunes was a traitor evaporated the moment Nunes insisted on challenging her for the featherweight title:
“Everybody asked me, Cris, do you want to fight Amanda?” Cyborg told reporters. “I said, man, I don’t want to fight Amanda. We share the same flag. She’s the champion. One dream I have in my heart is to see all the (Brazilian) girls in the UFC as champion like the guys had at one time. And then, she’s calling me out and everybody feels that, you know? Because I always promote the other girls, and I always promote the Brazilians. And it is a dream come true.”
Cris Cyborg and Amanda Nunes will be the co-main event of this Saturday’s UFC 232 event from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and it’s a fight that Cyborg did not want, but one that Nunes gave her no choice but participate in. The end result, Cyborg believes, will be Nunes no longer being considered a champion in the eyes of the public:
“And I think after I fight hear…and I’m training hard to beat her… I don’t think people are going to look at her like the champion,” Cyborg continued. “She’s the champion of ’35, OK, she’s going to fight me, she’s not going to lose her belt of the division of ’35, but everybody is going to remember her fight. And everybody’s not going to look at her like the world champion of ’35.”
Do you agree that fans will no longer view Amanda Nunes as a true champion if she loses at UFC 232?
