Leslie Smith, a former Invicta FC champion who made waves with her comments towards Reebok and the UFC during the recent Athlete Retreat in Las Vegas, will face Lina Lansberg this summer at UFC Fight Night 113. Smith (8-7-1) has gone an even 3-3 since signing with the UFC. She has won two of her […]
Leslie Smith, a former Invicta FC champion who made waves with her comments towards Reebok and the UFC during the recent Athlete Retreat in Las Vegas, will face Lina Lansberg this summer at UFC Fight Night 113. Smith (8-7-1) has gone an even 3-3 since signing with the UFC. She has won two of her […]
There are always reasons why. People give and receive excuses all the time. It’s one of the things that human beings do to get along with the other human beings. But there’s a layer, not too far below the epidermis, where excuses become somet…
There are always reasons why. People give and receive excuses all the time. It’s one of the things that human beings do to get along with the other human beings. But there’s a layer, not too far below the epidermis, where excuses become something different.
Did the dog eat it? Maybe you’ll be washing your hair that night? Perhaps you hear your mother calling.
It’s not a matter of believability at that point. You’re not actually trying to convince anyone of anything. Rather, the point is to get the request or the requester to do one thing and one thing only: go the hell away.
At this point, let’s welcome Germaine de Randamie into the conversation.
You may know de Randamie (7-3) as the first person ever to hold the UFC women’s featherweight belt. To do so, she defeated Holly Holm—in a bout that saw de Randamie take heat for illegally striking Holm after the bell not once but twice—in February at UFC 208.
In the cage immediately after the fight, de Randamie said of Holm and her stick-and-move, clinch-heavy strategy: “It was close. But I came to fight, and she didn’t want to fight me.”
Moments later, broadcaster Joe Rogan asked de Randamie the million-dollar question, the one to which everyone just kind of assumed a foregone response. Did she, the new women’s featherweight champ, want to fight the consensus best women’s featherweight fighter, Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino?
“You know, I want to fight everybody,” she said. “If Cris Cyborg is the one I have to fight, I’ll fight her. Right now, I really need surgery on my hand. I’m gonna get surgery on my hand, and let’s see after.”
Not exactly the emphatic response fans and UFC brass (not to mention Cyborg) might have hoped for, but fair enough. Injuries happen. Fix it and come back strong, champ.
Oh, but wait. What’s this? One day later—one day later!—de Randamie called for an immediate rematch with Holm.
“I have nothing but respect for Holly and the UFC, and because of that I want to say right now that I think I owe it to Holly and the fans to do this fight again to make sure that the winner of this historic belt is crystal clear,” de Randamie wrote on Instagram.
No mention of Cyborg. Or the hand, for that matter.
Eventually the UFC booked Holm for a June bout in Singapore. So much for that immediate rematch. Team de Randamie countered by mumbling about retirement rumors and “personal issues.”
A few hardy GDR believers, clinging to hope like kittens to fallen trees in a flood-swollen river (don’t worry, they were rescued), might have gotten excited when UFC President Dana White said on May 15 that an update on the situation was coming soon and that “Cyborg will fight this summer.” Could Cyborg-GDR finally be in the works?
That hope was all but dashed Thursday, when de Randamie’s manager, Brian Butler-Au of SuckerPunch Entertainment, told MMA Junkie that de Randamie would not fight Cyborg because Cyborg was “a proven cheater.”
That’s an interesting statement from Team de Randamie. Yes, Cyborg failed a drug test in 2011, but de Randamie was caught—you know, on camera—punching Holm after the horn just last February.
Ah, but the dog must have eaten their footage.
The final blow landed Monday when de Randamie announced that she—despite holding the 145-pound featherweight belt—would return to 135 pounds.
“My reason to reject the fight now has nothing but nothing at all to do with my fear,” she wrote. “I believe that if you want to do sports you do this without any means that can affect the muscle mass. I—as a top athlete—always trained, always watched my food and put 18 years of my life on sports, without using just one means that is not allowed.”
Another reference to Cyborg’s past PED use. Plenty of other fighters have come back from a failed drug test to compete again. Is there some reason that Cyborg is different? And if she felt so strongly about this principle that she would give up her championship belt—the one that caused her to shout out loud for joy when she received it—why didn’t she mention it at UFC 208?
Any attempt to look behind the curtains at UFC headquarters is like trying to read tea leaves in a glass of cement. However, it is not unrealistic to speculate that the UFC has incentives for champions to defend titles and placed a fairly substantial offer on the table for de Randamie to defend against Cyborg. GDR-Cyborg could headline a pay-per-view. That’s a lot of money. (At a bare minimum, title defenses land you in the highest slots of any card, which in and of itself increases pay.)
Certainly Cyborg (17-1-1) is feared for a reason. She’s probably the most devastating MMA fighter—man or woman—on planet earth right now.
De Randamie chose not to rise to that occasion, essentially relinquishing her championship so Cyborg could face Megan Anderson or some other more willing competitor—anyone but her.
Whatever happens with de Randamie moving forward, the UFC should discipline her. Go ahead and strip her of the belt. Then perhaps banish her to the matchmaking land of wind and ghosts. Let her test the latest judo import on a deep Sao Paolo undercard. Should they cut her outright?
The UFC should be upset. Its brand-new division, fresh out of the gate, is now tarred with illegitimacy. Its first champion wouldn’t fight the best. What kind of cloud does that put over this division, and over Cyborg, whom the UFC appears to (finally) view as the marketable, dominant athlete that she is?
It’s more than just the one division, though. The UFC has devalued its own belts enough with all these interim titles—interim this and interim that—essentially printing money from its own press to add short-term excitement to a division or an individual bout while causing harmful inflation over the long run. The UFC doesn’t need fighters expediting that process.
Now, one might say, “Easy for you to say, keyboard warrior. You’re not out here fighting for a living.” And that’s exactly right. If you’re not a fighter, there’s no pretense of toughness, at least not on this level. That illustrates why de Randamie, for whom such a pretense does exist, particularly given her champion status, should no longer be taken seriously, at least not unless there’s a redemptive action.
As it is, it’s like being a chef who doesn’t like fire or a construction worker who doesn’t like dirt or a kid with a dog who’s unceasingly hungry for looseleaf.
The MMA world has neither seen nor heard from UFC women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie since she revealed she would need hand surgery immediately after her highly controversial championship win over Holly Holm in the main event of February’s UFC 208. Today (Mon. May 29, 2016), however, de Randamie has finally broken the silence […]
The MMA world has neither seen nor heard from UFC women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie since she revealed she would need hand surgery immediately after her highly controversial championship win over Holly Holm in the main event of February’s UFC 208.
Today (Mon. May 29, 2016), however, de Randamie has finally broken the silence about her unwillingness to fight Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino, the consensus top female featherweight in the world and the woman whom many feel is by far the most dominant force in all of women’s MMA. A fight with Cybrorg seems like a no-brainer for de Randamie, yet “The Iron Lady” revealed on her official Instagram account (via MMA Mania) that there were too many issues with drug testing to face Justino:
Dear All,
It’s been a while since I posted something. But because of the commotion that I have come to feel, I feel the need to hear something from me and to clear the air (as far as possible). It is absolutely not so that everything that is said makes me do nothing. Also, I am a human being and I also have feelings. Despite the fact that I’m always positive, the comments make me more than I had hoped. The positive but also the negative.
The fight between me and Chris Cyborg was offered to me last November. Even then, I had all my reservations but I accepted the fight. Chris Cyborg has rejected the fight because she could not get the weight of 66 kilos in twelve weeks time. One month later, she was visited by the USADA and did not pass the test. The rest of the story is known.
My reason for rejecting the fight now has nothing but nothing at all to do with my fear.
I believe that if you want to do sports you do this without any means that can affect the muscle mass. I – as a top athlete – always trained, always watched my food and put 18 years of my life on sports, without using just one means that is not allowed.
Everyone has his or her opinion on this and that may. But that people think to know what my motives are / do not put me in the cold clothes.
Ed Mulholland for USA TODAY Sports
With that announcement, the already uncertain UFC women’s featherweight landscape, which was only just created this year when de Randamie fought Holm for the inaugural title, is even more uncertain, but de Randamie issued yet another post that made it even more so – if that’s even possible.
In the second, she teased that not only would she not fight Cyborg, but she was returning to her original division of women’s bantamweight after having her hand examined:
I work full time and irregularly, which takes a lot of time. In addition, there is still a lot of unclear about my hand. I have an appointment with the doctor on 14 June, and it will be decided whether or not to be operated. This option should also be considered for me because there is a great chance that my tendons / nerves can cause such damage that I could not use my hand more optimally.
During the negotiations on the battle with Holly Holm, I said in advance that after this fight I want to return to my natural weight class of 61 kilos. My task has not been completed yet
The UFC has promised me that this would be no problem and I can just return to my natural weight class.
This is why I am focusing on this moment.
When I fell in love with the martial arts 18 years ago, I had 1 goal. Share my great love with others who have the same love for martial arts as me !! This is my goal and will always remain my goal.
I want to thank everybody who has always stood before me and still support me through thick and thin !! You guys rock.
For all the haters; Two Baths !! “The IronLady” is far from done
So de Randamie is on the sidelines with her return more unclear than ever, and the 145-pound picture is only further clouded by the UFC’s decision to wait on the “Very serious” case of Cyborg punching strawweight Angela Magana at last weekend’s UFC fighter retreat.
If Justino is indeed cleared, she’s lobbied for a fight with Invicta FC featherweight champ Megan Anderson at UFC 214 near her adopted American home.
One thing is certain, however – she won’t be fighting the actual champion, who’s maintained quite possibly the strangest start to a title reign of any UFC champion in MMA history.
It appears Germaine de Randamie wants no part of Cris Cyborg. For de Randamie, who is the reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s featherweight title holder, a fight with Cyborg is a no-go. Her manager, Brian Butler explained why to MMAFighting.com: “Germaine and her team have talked, and the position is that she will not […]
It appears Germaine de Randamie wants no part of Cris Cyborg. For de Randamie, who is the reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s featherweight title holder, a fight with Cyborg is a no-go. Her manager, Brian Butler explained why to MMAFighting.com: “Germaine and her team have talked, and the position is that she will not […]
Since its inception earlier this year, the UFC’s featherweight division has been in a bit of a debacle. First off, the inaugural featherweight champion was crowned in a bout between two natural bantamweights when Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie in the main event of UFC 208 this past February in Brooklyn, New York. The […]
Since its inception earlier this year, the UFC’s featherweight division has been in a bit of a debacle.
First off, the inaugural featherweight champion was crowned in a bout between two natural bantamweights when Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie in the main event of UFC 208 this past February in Brooklyn, New York. The fight itself was controversial as well, but de Randamie walked away with a decision victory.
Since then, however, she has yet to defend her title and it appears as if she has no interest in doing so against the only logical contender: Invicta FC champion Cris Cyborg Justino:
“Germaine and her team have talked, and the position is that she will not fight Cyborg because Cyborg is a known and proven cheater,” de Randamie’s manager Brian Butler told MMAFighting.com. “Even after so much scrutiny has been put on Cyborg, she still managed to pop for something and will always be a person of suspicion who is trying to beat the system rather than just conforming to the rules.
“For that reason, Germaine and her team don’t believe that Cyborg should be allowed to compete in the UFC at all. If that is the only fight the UFC wants, then Germaine is willing to wait and see if the UFC will strip her belt before making her next move.”
Cyborg has dealt with issues regarding performance enhancing drugs throughout her fighting career and she most recently made headlines when she essentially punched strawweight contender Angela Magana at the UFC’s Athlete Retreat last weekend. Despite her issues, many still consider her to be the very best female fighter on the planet.
Cyborg has expressed interest in competing at UFC 214 on July 29, 2017 and the UFC showed interest in booking her against former bantamweight title challenger Cat Zingano, but that fight has not been finalized.
The Brazilian also responded to de Randamie, saying that while GDR is the UFC champion, she is the world champion:
Cris “Cyborg” Justino came back with some harsh words after being called a “proven cheater” by Germaine de Randamie’s camp Friday.
In a series of tweets, Justino questioned everything from the legitimacy of the featherweight title to her tou…
Cris “Cyborg” Justino came back with some harsh words after being called a “proven cheater” by Germaine de Randamie‘s camp Friday.
In a series of tweets, Justino questioned everything from the legitimacy of the featherweight title to her toughness.
“We waited five months to find out it wasn’t [de Randamie’s] hand that was hurt but her mental toughness and lack of confidence,” she tweeted. “The toughest opponent de Randamie will ever fight is her mind. Unfortunately that’s a battle she will have to overcome before being world champ.”
She added, “Some people are so afraid to lose that they will find every excuse not to try. De Randamie you can’t doubt yourself champs are confident.”
This comes in response to her prospective opponent’s camp refusing a bout at UFC 214.
“Germaine and her team have talked, and the position is that she will not fight Cyborg because Cyborg is a known and proven cheater,” her manager Brian Butler said, per Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting. “Even after so much scrutiny has been put on Cyborg, she still managed to pop for something and will always be a person of suspicion who is trying to beat the system rather than just conforming to the rules.”
There are always reasons why. People give and receive excuses all the time. It’s one of the things that human beings do to get along with the other human beings. But there’s a layer, not too far below the epidermis, where excuses become something different. 