Dana White trashes Cyborg, says UFC won’t re-sign her

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC

Cris Cyborg’s days in the UFC are officially over.

The tumultuous relationship between Cris Cyborg and the UFC has come to a perhaps predictable end.

In a UFC conducted interview published on Friday, Dana White told Laura Sanko that Cyborg will not be offered a new contract, paving the way for her to sign with another promotion. Of course, it wasn’t said on the kindest of terms.

“All this other bullsh-t that she’s putting out there – again, to avoid fighting Amanda Nunes,” White said. “Message received. I get it. I’m going to release her from her contract. I will not match any offers.

“She is free and clear to go to Bellator or any of these other organizations and fight these easy fights that she wants,” White said. “Done. Done deal. I will literally today have my lawyer draft a letter to her team that she is free and clear to go wherever she wants. We’re out of the Cyborg business.”

Cyborg is coming off a unanimous decision win over Felicia Spencer at UFC 240, which represented the last fight of her deal. White had flatly stated in the lead-up that Cyborg was afraid to lose to Nunes again, something Cyborg denied. Cyborg criticized both Dana White and Joe Rogan for what she perceived as unacceptable and bullying behavior towards her, demanding public apologies from both.

“This is a woman that doesn’t want to fight [Amanda Nunes] no matter what she says,” White said. “I am giving up my rights to her contract to matching her contract to anything. I’m giving it up. There you go. You’re not being bullied. Nothing like that. I’m going to let you go. If you don’t want to fight Amanda and you don’t want to be here that bad, then why would I want you here?”

White also claimed that his infamous comments referring to Cyborg as “looking like Wanderlei Silva in a dress” were taken out of context, brought up Cris’ steroid use prior to signing with the UFC, and argued that Cyborg’s lashing out at White and the UFC was all a “smokescreen” to duck a rematch with Nunes, who knocked her out at UFC 232 last year. He says he doesn’t hate Cyborg at all and that he’s never bullied her.

It’s hard to doubt White when he says Cyborg doesn’t want to fight Nunes. This shirt that Cyborg wore throughout UFC 240 fight week is clearly the biggest smokescreen of them all, especially with UFC content partner ESPN titling this video: “Cris Cyborg wants rematch vs. Amanda Nunes.” Possibly the greatest smokescreen we’ve ever seen in human history.

In essence, more than half of this 16-minute interview is White completely burying Cyborg, such that he declared they wouldn’t even try to match offers from what are effectively competing promotions for her services. It didn’t take long for PFL (albeit cheekily with just Kayla Harrison waving to the camera) and Bellator’s Scott Coker to immediately express interest in signing the Brazilian striker.

You can watch and listen to the full video at the top of the page.