Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
Cris Cyborg competed in the final fight of her UFC contract last Saturday night (July 27, 2019) at UFC 240, defeating Felicia Spencer via unanimous decision in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (see it). According to Cris, there’s a three-month period where she can come to terms with UFC before speaking to other promotions.
Cyborg also revealed that there was previously a six-fight deal on the table with UFC, but it would only allow her to fight once per year, something she simply didn’t like. And while she is determined to let the three months play out to hear other offers, re-upping with UFC isn’t out of the question.
As long as changes are made with how the promotion treats her.
“I think a lot of things have to fix and change for me to have more fights in UFC. Everybody who follows my career knows my struggle with UFC. They know I never start fighting with UFC because the promotion want me to be there. No, it was the fans pressure. I have opportunity to fight in UFC because fans put so much pressure on them.”
While Cris was grateful for the opportunity to fight for UFC, she says the promotion never did much to help her build her brand as a fighter and athlete.
“They don’t help me or my brand and they all the time try to damage my brand, especially Dana White. He is the head of UFC. If you look at the face of UFC, it’s Dana White and he continue to damage my brand. It started a long time ago when I was in Strikeforce. I don’t know what his problem but he continues doing this. But I proved him wrong.”
On top of that, Cris — along with several other people — wasn’t too happy with Joe Rogan’s commentary with her fight, suggesting it was a lot closer than it really was with his biased commentary.
“Saturday, I threw more punches than anybody at the event, look at the percentage. And they make it look like the fight was close. Joe Rogan commentated the fight and made it look like it was a very hard fight. No! It’s just hard to work with people like this, it’s really hard.”
Cyborg say she had a brief discussion with White backstage – which you can see here – but says he didn’t get a clear answer from him after she pressed him as to why he insists on lying about not wanting a rematch with Nunes.
According to Cris, she would love nothing more than a public apology from Dana and Rogan for the comments they have said about her, including joking about having a penis and looking like Wanderlie Silva in a dress.
As a result of those hurtful comments Cris says it has led to many people attacking her with those jokes on social media. It’s a form of bullying the hard-hitting striker says she shouldn’t have to be going through.
Furthermore, Cris says UFC officials forced her to take off the shirt she was sporting after UFC 240 promoting a rematch with Nunes because it didn’t fit Dana’s narrative.
As for why she would even consider re-signing with UFC despite all of the bad history, Cyborg says it’s only because she knows her fans want to see her fight the best UFC has to offer, including a much-desired do-over with Amanda.
At the end of the day, though, re-signing with UFC won’t be possible if Dana doesn’t apologize to her.
“Of course he has to apologize. He has family, he has kids and if he wants to be honest, he’s supposed to do this. I don’t know if he has a heart, but what he’s doing is not just touching me, if he doesn’t like me. He’s touching people around me, my family. It’s not right. He always wants to avoid his family with things he does, but when he does this it affects my family.”
And she doesn’t want a private apology, either, she wants it made in public for everyone to witness. And while Joe Rogan has already apologized in private to her, he also needs to man up and issue a public one.
“Public. It’s easy to say it in private like Joe Rogan did when there were no cameras. No, you want to talk about me, how I have a dick, you have to talk in public. You’re not a man, to me you’re not a man. If Joe Rogan a man, he will say I am sorry in public, not in my ear.”