Cyborg wants bigger UFC push, Stann cites fighter difficulty

Cris Cyborg Justino, 31, is the best female fighter on the planet, but Paige VanZant, 23, has better sponsorships. Cyborg hasn’t lost since she got kneebarred in her very first fight, back in 2005. PVZ is 1-2 her last three.

Cyborg has for years been under contract with the UFC, as she fought for Invicta FC. The UFC did not have a 145-pound women’s division, and planned for her to slowly cut to 135 with the idea of fighting the then seemingly undefeatable Ronda Rousey. Rousey has likely retired and Cyborg nearly died from cutting, so the UFC added a women’s featherweight division, but Justino was not ready to go, in part due to failing a PED test for drugs she was taking under the care of a physician to deal with the effects of a weight cut.

Cyborg puts a degree of blame on the UFC for not putting their marketing muscle behind her. She argues further that comments from UFC personalities have in fact hurt her brand. For example, back in 2014, UFC president Dana White quipped that Justino looked like “Wanderlei Silva in a dress” at the World MMA Awards. Much more recently, commentator Brian Stann said she was difficult to work with.

Cyborg expressed her frustration on her social network.

I missed the negative things @BrianStann had to say about me but hope @seanshelby brings them up when we meet with Ari

— CrisCyborg.Com (@criscyborg) April 26, 2017

My English no good for SNL but there are many opportunities. I live California not far @UFCONFOX home studio but I've never been once

— CrisCyborg.Com (@criscyborg) April 25, 2017

I have a brand without the push. 30 million in Brazil 1.3 million on FS1 prove. I also make a lot organic content https://t.co/gXnbMMC6Ah

— CrisCyborg.Com (@criscyborg) April 25, 2017

I've never had a chance to fight @FOXTV my 3 fights in the USA were all in Invicta while under UFC contract

— CrisCyborg.Com (@criscyborg) April 25, 2017

I no lose 10 years. Go to YouTube and type Dana White Cris Cyborg, then type Rogan Cyborg. Tell me if those videos are good marketing 4me https://t.co/Qk5lSW3BJK

— CrisCyborg.Com (@criscyborg) April 25, 2017

This is the video Cyborg refers to above:

Stann weighed in on the subject in his latest on his Toe-2-Toe radio show on SiriusXM.

I agree with ‘Cyborg’ in terms of her Invicta fights, said Stann as transcribed by Steven Marrocco for MMAjunkie. If we [could have found] a way to have put her on the undercard or other portions instead of Invicta, maybe that would have been great to build her brand, no doubt. But there are things that she and her manager [Note: the ‘manager’ referenced here is Justino’s longtime boyfriend Ray Elbe, rather than her contractual manager George Prajin], who her manager is primarily the one who controls her Twitter account, have to realize here – They are not easy to work with, and I can attest to this.

When I called her first fight in the UFC, I speak to every single athlete. I like to before they fight, before I call their fight. I feel like that’s what I owe them. I shouldn’t be in there speculating. I should be sure of where they trained, what they focused on, who their coaches are, what they would like me to talk about concerning their brand. I ask them all these questions. I talk to them about what they want to get done, what are the weaknesses and strengths they see in their opponent, all these things, and then it’s a secret. I don’t tell anybody. I don’t even tell Jon Anik. Nobody knows what I’m going to say until they start making that walk.

When I set up a time to speak to her, her manager gave me a time that was my appointment to speak to her. I call. Doesn’t answer. I go back to him to get a meeting and set up a time, and he gives me another time. I call. No answer. I call. No answer. So then I call George Lockhart, who I knew was sitting with her or was with her handling her weight cut. George answers the phone, and I say, ‘Hey George, is Cris busy right now, I had a time set to speak to her before this fight at UFC 198.’ [He said], ‘Bro, she’s sitting right next to me.’ I said, ‘OK, is her phone in her hand?’ He says yes. I go, ‘OK. Does she just no longer want to do this appointment?’ [He said], ‘I guess not, bro. I don’t know what to tell you.’ OK, no problem. But that doesn’t help me promote you. I actually told her manager, look, I understand what’s been said about this woman before – I am only looking to focus on the positive things and promote her as a fighter. I’ve never said anything negative about her, so she didn’t give me that opportunity to do so. OK. Fine.

The other thing about her. She gets George Lockhart to live with her and be there for her entire camp – cook all of her food. She didn’t pay for that. UFC paid for that. That’s a pretty massive advantage. That’s special treatment. That’s pretty awesome – an entire weight class made for her. She did turn down fights; I know that that did happen. She was hard to work with them and did turn down fights. More importantly, there was a time where she decided to lie about her weight and talk about her weight cut. For some reason, she started tweeting out her weight at a current time during her cut; the UFC was able to verify and they didn’t really go too public with this, but there were some issues there too where she was lying about her weight at the time.

I’m not saying she’s 100 percent wrong in some of the things she’s putting out there, but she’s not doing herself any favors on the flip side by being so difficult to work with.

One of the things that has helped Conor McGregor and Ronda get their push is that they saw this as a mutually beneficial agreement among businesses – the fighter being their own business, and they were good partners in this whole thing. And man, I think ‘Cyborg’ still has an opportunity to be a great partner, and she can turn this around because she’s right. She’s absolutely a draw. At a time where they need more stars, here’s one ripe for the picking that I think people scratch their head about – wow, this woman is a phenomenal athlete. She’s smashing people. I think they’ve got a shot here.

I am hoping they can fix this. I’m hoping they can find a way to move this forward and … there’s still time to patch this up and do a better job on both sides of promoting this. But man, in my experience, she is one of the more difficult fighters to work with from my perspective, and it’s a shame because I’ve done nothing but say positive things about her and her training.

I’ve said it before – people want to associate her with the steroids and things of that nature. I’m telling you, this woman is a phenomenal athlete. It’s a shame she ever got caught up with that early in her career, because she never needed it. I’ve watched her train. I’ve watched her cut the weight. I’ve watched her work out. Wow. It’s impressive. Very impressive, and it’s a shame that conversation can’t be had because of other things, and I think it needs to be had, and I think people will recognize over time, and I’d love to be an analyst that helps usher in that conversation about this athlete. So we’ll see what happens. I wish her and her camp the best in the future, and I hope that this can get healed and she can get promoted better.