Earlier this year, Germaine de Randamie outpointed Holly Holm in a somewhat controversial fight at UFC 208 to become the inaugural UFC women’s featherweight champion. Since then, however, the UFC has stripped her of her title due to the fact that she essentially refused to fight Cris Cyborg, a female many consider to be the very best female fighter on the planet.
Appearing on today’s edition of The MMA Hour, de Randamie spoke on the matter, and said that she didn’t ‘regret’ anything:
“I don’t regret anything. I stand for my principles and I believe that forbidden substances are not allowed in sport, especially not fighting,” she said. “This is a full contact sport. People have ended up in wheelchairs. I was just reading the other day that a boxer did his first pro fight and is now drinking out of a straw. We put our lives on the line and we are here to entertain people,” she said.
“I don’t regret anything, there are things I don’t support and that’s my opinion. Of course, I regret that moment in the fight where I threw the combination (after bell rang). I regret it because I play fair and it’s my deepest apology if I hurt anybody with that, even Holly. That’s not me. I would never risk not winning a world title, being disqualified for something this stupid. That’s not me. But I don’t regret any decision I have ever made,” she said.
As far as the backlash she has received regarding her decision, de Randamie said that all she cares about is remaining true to herself, although she did admit that some of it ‘hurts’:
“I do care about is staying me. It’s okay that they took away the belt, the only thing I cared about was the things people said. I don’t care that people l said I’m scared of Cyborg, I fought a guy who was 40 pounds heavier, and in a boxing match. I’m not a boxer. I fought the best standup girls in the world, the very, very best. I was the reigning world champion in three different divisions at the same time. I fought every girls, so people can say I’m scared because I don’t mind as long as I can look at myself in the mirror and know I’m not scared. They can say I’m a cheater, I am not, it hurts, but it’s their opinion.”
“The Iron Lady” is now set to return to bantamweight where she’ll take on Marion Reneau on Sept. 2, 2017. Without the featherweight belt in tow, de Randamie said it was no longer about the belt, but being treated with respect by all those who attacked her:
“You don’t have to like me,” de Randamie said. “You can disagree with the decisions I’ve made. You can. But you don’t have to hurt people with things. That’s my opinion.
“I don’t care about the belt. What I do care about is staying me. It’s OK that they took away the belt. The only thing that I cared about was the things that people said.”
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