Cris Cyborg on plans for next fight: “Holm vs Anderson winner, then Amanda Nunes”
Since her debut in the UFC, Cris Cyborg has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt to be the best pound for pound female fighter in MMA, having gone without a loss in the sport an unbelievable 12 years. Among her winning championships in every organization she’s fought for, Cyborg cemented herself as possibly the greatest female MMA fighter of all time when she won the UFC Women’s Featherweight Title a UFC 214.
In the early stages of her reign, Cyborg has mowed through the top contenders in her division such as Holly Holm, and most recently Yanna Kunistskya. With two dominant victories already in the division against the two of the best contenders they had to offer, many wonder if there is any viable competition left for Cyborg. One name that’s been brought on on few occasions has been featherweight contender Megan Anderson whom Cyborg was scheduled to fight last year but the fight never came to fruition.
As of late it appears Holm has gotten herself right back into the title mix as she will face Anderson at UFC 225 in which Cyborg will likely take on the winner. Should Cyborg defend the title successfully in that fight, a highly anticipated super fight with UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes would be on the horizon, of course Cyborg wasn’t happy how this all came together but in true champion fashion the result is cool with her as she expressed on the The MMA Hour.
“I’m okay with the plan,” Cyborg said.
“I was supposed to fight Megan Anderson before Holly, you know? I think I wasn’t going to say anything but me and Megan were supposed to fight before, she was the No. 1 contender in my division, and I fight for my division, and I fight all the girls at 135 the UFC gave me. And the only girl the UFC has at 145, they give to Holly. I really don’t care anymore about this, I just want to fight whoever is going to win.”
The original plans for Cris Cyborg were for a fight with Nunes this coming July but that all fell through when the UFC requested the champion take a fight on short notice for UFC 222 against Holly Holm.
“After my fight against Holly Holm, I asked for Amanda,” Cyborg said. “I told the UFC I would like to fight Amanda in July because I was adopting my niece and I need time for her, and it was going to be perfect time in July. Between this, the UFC called me and asked me to fight at UFC 222 on short notice. And I said can you do Amanda and they say the could not get Amanda for UFC 222, And I said okay, maybe I can fight at UFC 222 but I still want to fight in July with Amanda. And they said, ‘Okay, Cris, the fight is going to happen.’”
Cyborg hoped desperately she’d fight Nunes or Anderson at UFC 226, but ended up turning out Nunes fought Raquel Pennington at UFC 224, then much to Cyborg’s surprise, the UFC booked at #1 contender bout between Holm and Anderson.
“I said OK, if Amanda is going to fight in July, and fights now in Brazil and gets hurt, how is she going to fight me in July?” Cyborg said. “You guys can put me against Megan Anderson. That fight, if Amanda is hurt, I can fight Megan Anderson. I want to fight July, you guys promised me fight in July. And they say, ‘No, no she’s not going to be hurt, she’s going to be okay.’
“They said for me, Megan Anderson is not going to have her visa ready for July,” Cyborg continued. “And after, three days later, I learn they’re going to fight Holly Holm and Megan Anderson. For my July, if someone is going to get hurt, she cannot fight me. I’m thinking she’s going to fight Amanda in July, this is already my plan, and now she has injury after her fight, the commission give her like six months.”
Despite knowing Nunes injury will keep her out of action for a good while, Cyborg isn’t gonna be the one to wait until Nunes returns.
“I don’t want to wait,” Cyborg said. “I want to fight and I think this fight Megan Anderson and Holly, they’re already making plans for me and Holly rematch. Because they just took [Alistair] Overeem off the pay-per-view, put him on the preliminaries, and they put Megan Anderson and Holly, the first fight on the PPV with Megan. And I think Dana White wants to get prepared for me and Holly to have a rematch. I’m not going to wait for Amanda from her injury, I’d like to fight who’s going to win the next fight of Holly and Megan, and then it can be the last fight on my contract with Amanda. She can take all the time she needs.”
Being that Cyborg is as dominant as she is in the cage, that be a very hard burden for UFC management as far as finding legitimate competition is concerned, mainly because the division has no depth. The company will address this issue in the form of the next season of the Ultimate Fighter, though not always in agreeance with certain moves that are made, the UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion is pleased how the company is showing commitment to her weight class.
“I was really happy about this because the one thing is, I was always fighting for my division, not for me but for the girls like them,” said Cyborg, who flew out to Las Vegas to attend the tryouts. “It’s going to be, [Tuesday] is the tryouts and it makes me really happy because I really fought for this. I didn’t hear much about this from the UFC, I found out about this on different websites about there’s going to be tryouts. And I’m going to be there tomorrow. I don’t think I’m going to be coach then, but I’ll be there for the tryouts to support them. I’m happy for the division, and I think the division is going to be the goal one day. I know a lot of people don’t believe in our division, but the division has a lot of girls that are tough, they’re going to show more the 135 division. They’re going to be bigger and stronger and it’s going to be amazing for our division.”
What do you think happen with Cris Cyborg in the UFC Women’s Featherweight Division?
