Megan Anderson has given her take on the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) women’s featherweight division. Anderson will battle Cris Cyborg for the vacant women’s 145-pound gold on July 29. The two are set to compete in the co-main event of UFC 214. The action takes place inside the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. In a […]
Megan Anderson has given her take on the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) women’s featherweight division. Anderson will battle Cris Cyborg for the vacant women’s 145-pound gold on July 29. The two are set to compete in the co-main event of UFC 214. The action takes place inside the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. In a […]
A new Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s featherweight champion will be crowned as Germaine de Randamie has been stripped of her gold. The UFC has announced that Cris Cyborg will battle Megan Anderson to determine the new women’s 145-pound title holder at UFC 214. MMAFighting.com first reported that the bout was close to being booked. […]
A new Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s featherweight champion will be crowned as Germaine de Randamie has been stripped of her gold. The UFC has announced that Cris Cyborg will battle Megan Anderson to determine the new women’s 145-pound title holder at UFC 214. MMAFighting.com first reported that the bout was close to being booked. […]
After she publicly refused to fight consensus top contender Crsitiane “Cyborg” Justino, there were rumors that the UFC would strip former women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie of her title even though she only won it at February’s UFC 208. Today, the promotion did just that, stripping de Randamie of the gold and booking Cyborg […]
After she publicly refused to fight consensus top contender Crsitiane “Cyborg” Justino, there were rumors that the UFC would strip former women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie of her title even though she only won it at February’s UFC 208.
Today, the promotion did just that, stripping de Randamie of the gold and booking Cyborg vs. Invicta 145-pound titleholder Megan Anderson for the main event of July 29’s suddenly stacked UFC 214 from Anaheim, California.
The move was expected in order to clear up the women’s featherweight landscape, which had no cohesion or direction after de Randamie won the belt in incredibly controversial fashion over Holm before essentially running from Cyborg and disappearing from the public eye. However, it apparently came as news to de Randamie, who told MMA Fighting that she found out she had been stripped when she saw Cyborg vs. Anderson was made official online:
“I had absolutely no idea that I was being stripped of the belt. I found out through social media. Cyborg (Justino) is going to fight Megan (Anderson) for the belt.
“Nobody ever told me anything about it.”
Ed Mulholland for USA TODAY Sports
Yet the move was expected by the vast majority of the MMA world, and the UFC saw her refusal to fight Cyborg as a decision that obviously made her expendable. In a statement on UFC.com, the promotion explained their position, citing de Randamie’s refusal to fight the top contender as threatening to the ‘integrity of the sport’:
“UFC has informed Germaine de Randamie and her management team that she is being removed as the women’s featherweight champion due to her unwillingness to fight the No. 1 ranked contender, Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino. Subsequently, top contender Justino will face newly signed Invicta FC featherweight champion Megan Anderson for the UFC women’s featherweight title in the co-main event of UFC® 214: CORMIER vs. JONES 2, July 29 in Anaheim, Calif.
UFC maintains that any champion is expected to accept fights against the top contenders in their respective weight classes in order to maintain the integrity of the sport.”
While a simple structured system where the champions fight top contenders is exactly what countless fans have been clamoring for throughout the UFC’s rough start to 2017, in truth it’s clear to see that the UFC will make exceptions to this so-called effort to ‘maintain the integrity of the sport,’ as both Conor McGregor and Michael Bisping have been allowed to choose their opponents, for better or worse.
Those names are much bigger than de Randamie’s, of course, and with a massive loan being worked on by new UFC owner’s WME-IMG, “The Iron Lady” clearly wasn’t in a position to be calling her shots, especially when women’s featherweight was essentially created to showcase Cyborg’s dominance. De Randamie was only brought on a late replacement when Cyborg wasn’t able to fight Holm at UFC 208.
The division doesn’t really have any other fighters outside of Cyborg and Anderson right now, but with de Randamie refusing to fight Cyborg due to her questionable history with performance-enhancing drugs (and some would argue outright fear), the decision to strip her of the title because she wouldn’t fight the woman who most believe to the uncrowned champ was an easy one.
De Randamie wasn’t bringing in the bucks, and that’s what the UFC obviously cares about these days.
Just don’t say it was to simply uphold the “integrity of the sport.”
Cristiane Justino finally has her next bout lined up, and it’s going to be a big one. The UFC recently announced that “Cyborg” would fight Invicta FC featherweight champion, Megan Anderson. The biggest news to come out of this announcement was that Germaine de Randamie had been stripped of the UFC women’s featherweight belt. Now, […]
Cristiane Justino finally has her next bout lined up, and it’s going to be a big one. The UFC recently announced that “Cyborg” would fight Invicta FC featherweight champion, Megan Anderson. The biggest news to come out of this announcement was that Germaine de Randamie had been stripped of the UFC women’s featherweight belt.
Now, Justino and Anderson will fight each other for the vacant title at UFC 214. This will serve as the co-main event of the event.
It took many years for Justino to compete in a UFC title fight. Justino, who has competed under the Invicta FC and Strikeforce banners, was forced to fight at 140 pounds once she made the jump to the UFC. She has since earned dominant TKO wins over Leslie Smith and Lina Lansberg. Then the UFC decided to finally open a women’s 145-pound weight class earlier this year. However, after she turned down some offers, the UFC decided to book de Randamie vs. Holly Holm at UFC 208 in February.
After the bout was announced, Justino had been issued a potential U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) violation. But she was granted a retroactive therapeutic use exemption and ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing and reinstated for competition.
UFC 214 is set to take place on Saturday, July 29th at Honda Center in Anaheim, California. A portion of the preliminary card will air on the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, while the rest of the prelims will air on FOX Sports 1. The main card will air on PPV (pay-per-view). Cormier is set to defend the light heavyweight title against Jones in the main event. The bout order for the event has yet to be finalized, but you can see the updated card here:
Champ Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones – for light heavyweight title
Cristiane Justino vs. Megan Anderson – for vacant women’s featherweight title
Prior to the start of UFC Fight Night 110 Saturday night, former Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg broke a little news about her future. Cyborg, who was announced for UFC 214 later this summer, confirmed on Twitter that she has signed a bout agreement – but declined announcing the opponent. Im hoping @ufc will […]
Prior to the start of UFC Fight Night 110 Saturday night, former Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg broke a little news about her future. Cyborg, who was announced for UFC 214 later this summer, confirmed on Twitter that she has signed a bout agreement – but declined announcing the opponent. Im hoping @ufc will […]
The UFC appears close to finalizing a fight between Cris “Cyborg” Santos and Megan Anderson for UFC 214 on July 29, sources say. While the newly crowned women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie has publicly stated her refusal to take on “Cyborg” for her first title defense, the UFC apparently is making other plans for the […]
The UFC appears close to finalizing a fight between Cris “Cyborg” Santos and Megan Anderson for UFC 214 on July 29, sources say.
While the newly crowned women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie has publicly stated her refusal to take on “Cyborg” for her first title defense, the UFC apparently is making other plans for the Brazilian, who is widely regarded as the best female fighter on the planet.
“Cyborg” (17-1-1) is already 2-0 in the UFC, with each victory coming by way of TKO. The former Strikeforce women’s featherweight champ had been serving a suspension following a failed drug test in 2016, but was granted a retroactive exemption for the substance in question back in February, making her eligible to fight.
De Randamie defeated former women’s bantamweight champ Holly Holm by decision at UFC 208 and has remained fairly quiet ever since.
The one thing she has made clear is that she does not want to fight “Cyborg”, accusing her of being a cheater and refusing to defend the strap against her.
Megan Anderson (8-2) has yet to make her octagon debut, but carries with her an impressive four-fight win streak in the Invicta cage, with all four wins coming by way of TKO.
The Australian is the current Invicta women’s featherweight champion after TKOing Charmaine Tweet in January. She reportedly signed to face newcomer Helena Kolesnyk in the main event of July 15’s Invicta FC 24 from Kansas City, but a potential bout with Cyborg would presumably take precedence.
With de Randamie’s refusal to fight “Cyborg” and her suggestion that she will most likely return to bantamweight after winning the newly-created 145 pound belt in February.
“Cyborg’s” two UFC appearances were both at a catchweight of 140 pounds, as both bouts took place prior to the creation of a 145 pound women’s weight division.
Although the “Cyborg” vs. Anderson fight has not been finalized as of today, the UFC is reportedly working hard on putting it together for UFC 214.
UFC 214 will take place on July 29 in Anaheim California, and is set to feature the long-awaited rematch between former champion Jon “Bones” Jones and current light heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier.
