Evinger: A lot of fighters don’t have the balls to be famous

The UFC’s first fight for the women’s featherweight belt was bizarre. Holly Holm, who was 0-2 her last two at bantamweight fought Germaine de Randamie, who outside the top-10 at bantamweight. Holm lost. Then GDR made it more bizarre still by refusing to fight the #1 contender Cris Cyborg. The UFC vacated the title and did an awesome do over – Cyborg vs. Invicta FC featherweight champion Megan Anderson. Unfortunately, Anderson withdrew for undisclosed personal reasons, but the UFC made another awesome fight – Cyborg vs. Invicta FC bantamweight champion Tonya Evinger, who is on a ten-fight win streak.

I think I’m her biggest challenge to date, said Evinger to Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. I’m not taking anything away from any of them other girls. All of them are good in their own right. It’s just my style, anyway. I think I’m gonna be the toughest challenge for her.

Evinger, 36, has a grinding wrestling-based style that will indeed be different. And while Evinger fights at 135, she cuts hard to get there, and should be comfortable at 145.

You know what? I’m not a puss, said Evinger. I know it’s a struggle to get to 145 for her. I know what it is. It doesn’t matter, man. I’ll go home and I’ll regret this for the rest of my life. ‘I could have beat her, maybe. I don’t know. Maybe I should have took the fight. Why was I such a puss?’ I was scared to fight at 145? That’s not me, man. I’m not saying I’m gonna go out there and fight at 170 pounds tomorrow or the next fight or anything like that, but [145] is realistic. This ain’t too far off.

I do think I’m really dominant at 135. I think I can definitely dominate at [145] and I think I can dominate at [125].

The fight will take place at UFC 214 on July 29, 2017 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California. She was offered the fight on June 22 and signed on June 27. That gives her 31 days to prepare for the fight of her life. Fortuitously, she was already in training for a non-title fight at 145 at Invicta 24 on July 15. Still, it’s Cris Cyborg.

It just doesn’t matter to me, she said. I think the longer I wait, the more pressure I put on myself. I feel like me and my camp, we’ve been talking about this fight. I knew we would get this fight. Not at this moment, but I knew it would be my first fight in the UFC.

I knew they weren’t gonna give me any kind of easy run. I knew I was going to get something as tough as they possibly could. But whatever, I’m here to fight.

Evinger was not impressed with GDR’s refusing the fight.

I’m the champion, said Evinger. There’s no way that being a champion you should be able to pick and choose your opponents. I’m there to fight. If I get beat, so be it. I’m not gonna not fight somebody to protect my championship belt. That’s ridiculous.

I’m not gonna not take a fight because I’m scared and intimidated. I’m scared and intimidated every single fight. I just go out there and do it. … A lot of these girls want to come in here to be famous, but they don’t have the balls enough to climb these certain walls and do these things to make you famous.