Cris Cyborg Sets Sights On UFC Champion After Latest Win
It’s clear what will be next for UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg.
As seen in the main event of Saturday’s (March 3, 2018) UFC 222 event on pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cyborg successfully retained her title against newcomer Yana Kunitskaya by picking up a TKO win in the first round.
Now, it appears that a champion vs. champion clash between Cyborg and UFC women’s bantamweight bout Amanda Nunes is just a matter of time from being made official.
As a result of this latest win, not only did she add to her legacy but she was able to record her second consecutive successful defense of her women’s featherweight title.
Following the fight, she addressed a potential fight with Nunes.
“She’s going to fight now, defend her title belt in Brazil in May, I think, and then probably I’m going to fight in July if she wins and is the champion,” Cyborg said of Nunes, who is reported to be defending her own title against Raquel Pennington at UFC 224 on May 12 in Brezil. “And now she’s calling me out, I’m not calling Amanda out. She’s calling me out. And yeah, I could fight her in July.”
“Amanda, she’s the champion at 135,” Cyborg said (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “I respect her being the champion, but I don’t think she fight anybody like me, too. Then she’s going up to 145, I know she’s had a couple of fights at 145 before, but the one thing like I said, I never want to fight a Brazilian, but when I was the champion over in Strikeforce in my division, we never had the opportunity to fight each other because she was never getting close.
“Now she’s the champion at 135, she’s calling me out, OK, let’s do this fight. I’m gonna train and be ready and what she’s going to do for me, I don’t think about this. I just think about what I’m going to do to her.”
“I don’t know, but for me I think it’s going to be too soon,” Cyborg said in regards to the May date. “Because I’m going to Brazil and then I have a lot of things to do. I’m going to adopt and bring my niece with me, and it’s going to be at the end of March, and I accepted this fight (with Kunitskaya) because it’s the beginning of March and it [fit into] my plan. But I don’t know, let’s see, it’d be exciting.”
It should be noted that Nunes-Pennington showdown has yet to be made official by the promotion.
Nunes recently said that the idea of fighting Cyborg was no personal, but she would be open to the fight.
UFC president Dana White is high on the idea of two top female stars meeting in the Octagon.
“(Cyborg)’s a beast,” White said. “The fight to make is her and Nunes. That’s the fight that needs to happen. Nunes wants the fight, she wants the fight, I want the fight, I’m sure the fans want to see it, too, so we’ll get that one going.”
