Cris Cyborg Unhappy With UFC, Willing To Fight Anyone Next

UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is one win away from tying the record for the most title defense in the UFC women’s history. Now, the question remains, is she the great women’s MMA fighter of all-time? That is up for debate no doubt. You can’t downplay her dominance in the UFC. Former Invicta featherweight

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UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is one win away from tying the record for the most title defense in the UFC women’s history. Now, the question remains, is she the great women’s MMA fighter of all-time? That is up for debate no doubt. You can’t downplay her dominance in the UFC.

Former Invicta featherweight champion Cris “Cyborg” Justino is arguably the best women’s fighter in the world right now. When asked about Jedrzejczyk, Cyborg, who has dominated her opponents for over a decade, doesn’t agree that Jedrzejczyk is the greatest female fighter of all-time just yet.

“Joanna is a great athlete and an example of what the UFC machine can do in terms of promotion and marketing,” Cyborg told MMA Fighting. “Of my last five fights, three were on Fight Pass. Joanna fought once on Fight Pass, was on the TV show Ultimate Fighter, and she normally fights as co-main event under fighters like (Conor) McGregor and Ronda (Rousey). You can do a lot of marketing over any athlete, but I’m the only athlete, men or women, that finished 90 percent of her fights by knockout.” Who’s the best MMA fighter of all times, I always left that for fans to decide,” she continued. “Media can influence some fans, but the truth always appears, as it did with the American hero Ronda Rousey.”

Since Germaine de Randamie beat Holly Holm to become the inaugural UFC featherweight champion earlier this year, Cyborg has been campaigning for a fight with the champ at UFC 214 in Anaheim, CA on July 29th. However, the UFC is attempting to fight an opponent for Cyborg. In her words, she is “waiting for the UFC to find an opponent for me because they can’t put their champion in the Octagon with me.”

Cyborg celebrated the anniversary of her UFC debut last week and remains confident that she would have broken former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey’s record already if the promotion did things differently.

“My UFC debut was a year ago, but, in reality, I’ve already fought five fights on my UFC contract,” Cyborg said. “If the UFC would’ve given me my belt just like they did with Ronda Rousey, I would have broken the record of title defenses already. I’m undefeated for 10 years and I’m a world champion, to take this title someone has to defeat me.”

Although it has been reported that Cyborg would fight at UFC 214, it’s still unclear whether she will compete at the event. Despite the unknown, she is still 100 percent confident that it will happen and is will to fight anyone.

“My next step is to stay focused, training to finish my contract with the UFC,” Cyborg said. “After that, I’ll know what my next steps will be. (…) I want to finish my contract. Whoever they put in front of me, I’ll fight. I’d like to fight someone who’s ranked in my weight division, someone like Megan Anderson, but there’s no ranking anymore. To come off a win doesn’t mean you will get the opportunity to fight for the belt.”

Former title contender Cat Zingano has reportedly been an option for Cyborg at UFC 214. However, there is one problem with that, she is not interested in the bout, but it comes back to her willingness to fight anyone at any given time.

“Cat Zingano is a great athlete, she fought at 125, went to 135, (but) her last win was in 2014,” the Brazilian said. “Let’s go, I don’t pick opponents. Whoever comes.”

Cyborg made it clear that she is planning to finish out her contract when it expires in October. However, she explained that her goal is to stay in the company.

“I’d like to stay in the UFC, but working together,” Cyborg said. “I believe I deserve to be respected as an athlete because I’m a pioneer in this sport.”

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Cris Cyborg & Megan Anderson Verbally Agree To Bout

The UFC women’s featherweight division has been up in the air, to say the least as there are not many fighters assigned to the division, which was created for former Invicta champion Cris “Cyborg” Justino, who wanted the promotion to create a division that she could fight in. Following a few bouts at catchweight, the

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The UFC women’s featherweight division has been up in the air, to say the least as there are not many fighters assigned to the division, which was created for former Invicta champion Cris “Cyborg” Justino, who wanted the promotion to create a division that she could fight in. Following a few bouts at catchweight, the UFC created the division for Cyborg. After Cyborg had passed up a few fights, the UFC decided to book Holly Holm vs. Germaine de Randamie to determine the first-ever UFC women’s featherweight champion in January, which was won by de Randamie.

Reigning Invicta featherweight queen Megan Anderson has been patiently waiting to get the call for her UFC debut, and her wish might be granted. On Monday afternoon, Anderson did a Skype interview on the latest edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. During the interview, Justino called in, and she stated that she would gladly fight Anderson at UFC 214 if de Randamie is not available.

“I’ve always expressed interest in taking the next step up to the UFC,” Anderson said on the show (transcript courtesy of BJPenn.com. “We haven’t been approached about doing that, so I think really it’s on them to come to us and say ‘hey let’s start negotiating.’ I feel like this is the fight that should have happened, and I think now’s the time. If Germaine isn’t going to be able to do it, let’s crown the people’s champ. I don’t need any more time. I’m fine for July 29,” Anderson added later. “Let’s do it.”

“I’ll fight [Cyborg] regardless,” she said of whether a belt should be on the line in a fight with Cyborg. “It should of been us [that fought for the inaugural title], it wasn’t, that’s fine, let’s do it now.”

Justino has stated in the past that a bout at UFC 214 with Anderson would be a solid consolation prize if De Randamie is not available. Now that Anderson has agreed to the bout, it appears that the UFC just needs to figure out if the bout is for the undisputed title, an interim title, or just a regular bout.

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‘Cyborg’ Hands The UFC An Ultimatum

Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino has taken her campaign for a female 145-pound UFC weight division to a whole new level. Justino has ruled female mixed martial arts (MMA) alongside Ronda Rousey since 2011, and with Rousey having suffered her first professional loss, ‘Cyborg’ is left to sit atop the women’s MMA mountain

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Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino has taken her campaign for a female 145-pound UFC weight division to a whole new level.

Justino has ruled female mixed martial arts (MMA) alongside Ronda Rousey since 2011, and with Rousey having suffered her first professional loss, ‘Cyborg’ is left to sit atop the women’s MMA mountain alone. Now that Justino has finally found her way into the UFC, owning two early round knockout wins over her adversaries, she has been forced to compete at catchweights of 140 pounds since the UFC does not currently have a female featherweight division.

The weight cut has been a strenuous one for the Brazilian champ, resulting in her heavy campaign for the UFC to build a 145-pound division around her. Recently speaking to Peruvian news outlet El Comerico, courtesy of MMA Fighting, ‘Cyborg’ has now threatened to leave the promotion if her championship weight class is not implemented into the UFC after the remaining two fights on her contract are up:

“The main thing is that I have two fights left in my division [featherweight],” Cyborg said. “I’m going to stay in my division, and see if the UFC opens up my division, or if they don’t do it, I’m going to leave.”

Furthermore ‘Cyborg’ has named Rizin and Bellator as possible landing spots for herself if the UFC does not open up her featherweight division, but says that she will continue her campaign until the conclusion of her contract and assess the situation from there:

“I’ll keep fighting so that hey open more divisions,” Cyborg said. “If I don’t have a division in the UFC, I’m going to go to another company like Rizin or Bellator or another organization where they have my division. I’ll keep fighting for that.”

Not having fought since September with her second round knockout over Lina Lansberg Brasilia, ‘Cyborg’ is eying a return early next year and is ready to take on anybody at 145 pounds:

“I don’t know yet, probably next year,” Cyborg said. “In February, I’ll be available to fight. I’m ready for whoever at 145 pounds.”

The UFC has not shown much interest in following up on ‘Cyborg’s’ requests, as it seems more likely that a 125-pound female division would be implemented first. If the UFC does want to hang on to ‘Cyborg’ for the foreseeable future, it seems they’ll have to grant her wish of introducing her championship weight class of 145-pound first.

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