Photo by Chris Unger/DWCS LLC
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White is apparently still wound up about former women’s Featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg, after claiming he was “done” with the Brazilian bomber just this past weekend. The straw that seemingly broke the bald man’s back was a doctored backstage video (watch it) that showed Cyborg confront White about his “lying” in relation to a contract extension and potential rematch with “champ-champ” Amanda Nunes.
Cyborg later apologized, taking “full responsibility for the actions that resulted in the edited video being posted” social media. The public mea culpa was apparently not enough for White, who reminded fight fans about some of her darkest days.
“Dealing with her has been a nightmare the entire time she’s been here,” White told mixed martial arts (MMA) media members during an impromptu media scrum last night (transcription via MMAJunkie.com). “It’s been a bad experience dealing with Cyborg since Day 1.
“We brought in her after she tested positive for steroids and we made her a clean athlete with the best drug testing policy in all of sports the entire time she was here,” he continued. “When she talks about her legacy and her brand, her legacy and her brand, nothing’s better than knowing she’s a clean athlete after testing positive for steroids and all the negativity that surrounded her about being a dirty athlete. We bring her in here, we do all this stuff and she was just never happy.
Cyborg would explain at the time (2012) that a dietary supplement triggered the failed drug test, but it cast a long shadow over her career at the time. She actually wouldn’t make her Octagon debut until four years later at UFC 198, a first round technical knockout over Leslie Smith. That same year (2016), United States Anti-Doping (USADA) agency flagged one of her tests for a banned substance, but she was later cleared in the case.
While White attempted to take credit where it may (or may not) be do, what really seemed to grind his gears is the aforementioned backstage video.
“What she did was dirty,” he explained. “It was dirty what she did with the video and all this other stuff in it. Meanwhile, she’s out here saying she better get an apology from me? Yeah, I got an apology from her because what she did was one of the dirtiest things. It had to kill her to apologize to me. Kill her to do it. But what she did is one of the dirtiest things you can do to somebody. That’s why she apologized.”
Cyborg is free to pursue other opportunities now that her bridge to UFC has been completely burned. Bellator MMA’s Scott Coker has expressed interest, as well as Professional Fight League’s Kayla Harrison (details).