Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White has officially had enough with Cris Cyborg.
In a video released by the promotion early Friday (see it HERE), White delivered news that he would be releasing the former UFC women’s featherweight champion from her contract and not matching any offers from any other organization. This comes after a highly-publicized spat with Cyborg over whether or not she was willing to rematch Amanda Nunes.
“All this other (expletive) 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.”
Cyborg, who fulfilled her contract with a recent unanimous decision win over Felicia Spencer last month at UFC 240, was expected to re-sign with the promotion for at least one more fight. But after Cyborg’s recent comments about White and UFC 240’s “bias” commentary, the promotion is seemingly closing the book on re-signing the Brazilian star.
“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 where ever she wants. We’re out of the Cyborg business.”
White, who hasn’t had the best relationship with Cyborg over the years, doesn’t really know what the 34-year-old veteran was trying to accomplish with her recent comments. Fight fans, however, know that Cyborg was just trying to feel valued and respected before signing another contract with the promotion, but her efforts obviously didn’t work.
“I don’t know what it is, but bad strategy,” White said. “I don’t hate Cyborg. I’m not trying to destroy Cyborg. All this craziness that she’s talking – do you know how many fighters I’ve dealt with over the years. People I really didn’t like. Like Tito (Ortiz). Tito doesn’t like me, and I don’t like Tito. And we haven’t and we didn’t, but we still got fights done. We still did business.”
While this entire situation involving UFC, White, and Cyborg seems to be a mind-boggling game of he said, she said, the one constant is that a rematch with Nunes was never booked. Whether or not that came from Team UFC or Team Cyborg, it was the biggest fight to make in women’s MMA and it didn’t happen. Missed opportunities like that raise red flags and make powerful men like White uneasy.
“This is a woman that doesn’t want to fight the champion 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?”
Stick with Mania for more reaction on Cyborg’s release.