Cyborg: Amanda Nunes Using My Name To Build Her Brand

Following Cris Cyborg’s first-round stoppage victory over Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 222 earlier this month, UFC President Dana White said that a bout between Cyborg and bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes was what he would like to see next.

Recently, however, it was announced that Nunes would be defending her 135-pound strap against Raquel Pennington in the main event of May 12’s UFC 224 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

That doesn’t completely close the door on a bout between the “Lioness” and Cyborg, but the featherweight champion has begun to question whether or not Nunes actually wants the fight:

“I’m beginning to think Amanda Nunes only brought up my name to negotiate a new deal with the UFC,” Cyborg told Combate.com (Via MMAjunkie). “Like a lot of the girls, she just wants to use my name to build her brand.”

Cyborg has long expressed interest in the super fight taking place at UFC 226, which is set to take place on July 7, 2018 during International Fight Week in Las Vegas, Nevada, but if it doesn’t, she’ll be ready to move on:

“If Amanda isn’t ready to go for UFC 226 in Las Vegas I have told my team I want to fight whomever is ready,” Cyborg said. “I explained to my manager that if Amanda wins in Rio and then declines the fight for July, that I don’t want to invest any more time into trying to make this fight happen. We can visit the fight again if Nunes decides to return to featherweight and establish herself in the division against the number one contender.”

There is, however, one positive that Cyborg sees out of Nunes fighting at UFC 224 in Brazil:

“The nice thing about Nunes facing Pennington in Brazil is it will give my team another opportunity to see how big of a fanbase she has in Brazil and how many pay-per-view buys she can sell in the U.S., giving us a better picture of her side of the super fight.”

Is this a fight you’d still like to see?