Cyborg not impressed with superfight vs. Nunes
Cris Cyborg: “As a world champion, it is important that you face the #1 contender. That is what makes it sport and not entertainment.”
The women’s featherweight title picture remains confused. First, division champion Cris Cyborg said the UFC had offered her Megan Anderson, and she had accepted. The next day, UFC president Dana White, on vacation in Thailand, said the next bout for Cyborg was going to be a superfight vs. women’s bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes.
Now in a detailed message posted to her official website, Cyborg said she is not impressed.
In my first title defense, Megan Anderson still had not dealt with her personal issues and was unable to compete. Instead of offering a fight to the next featherweight contender available, Holly Holm was given the bout despite going 1-3 over her past four fights.
The matchup proved popular with the fans, and our styles eventually made for Fight Of The Night, however, Holm was given a title shot over girls who had been fighting at 145lbs and winning because she was more popular, and not because she was the next contender in line.
Having re-established myself as the WORLD CHAMPION at 145lbs I feel it is my obligation to fight the #1 contender at 145lbs in my next fight.
As a world champion, it is important that you face the #1 contender. That is what makes it sport and not entertainment, otherwise what are the girls fighting at 145lbs training to work towards if they know they will never be given a title shot even if they become the best in the world? I have a responsibility to the sport to ensure that when I retire the 145lbs division continues to exist, and it is because of that I want my next fight to be against a contender from the featherweight division that has fought at 145lbs within the last year.
If Megan Anderson is not ready to fight, then the next available contender Pam Sorenson deserves the opportunity. I can continue giving fans superfights, however, in order for this division to grow it is my responsibility to respect the work of all the women fighting at 145lbs and give the top girls a chance at the title once they have earned it. If Amanda Nunes truly wants an opportunity at the 145lbs belt, a win against any ranked contender in that division would help establish her back in a weight class she left before fighting me.
The UFC has badly botched the launch of the 145 women’s division. It was created for Cyborg, and when the ill effects of a murderous weight cut took her out for months, the decision was made to go ahead with a title fight between bantamweights, neither of whom ultimately won. It wasn’t rational. Nearly a year later, there still isn’t a division. This leaves Cyborg potentially calling for a fight with Pam ‘Bam’ Sorenson, who is coming off a Split Decision win Jan Finney to IT Fight Series 77 and lost in the past last year to Ediane Gomes. Until an actual division is established, with fighters, the situation is unlikely to right.
