Amanda Nunes balks at Cris Cyborg's July 7 deadline: 'I don't think it's fair'

Amanda Nunes has other things to think about besides deadlines.

The UFC women’s bantamweight champion said she has better things to do than read Cris Cyborg’s call to fight her at UFC 226. Her eyes are fixed on Raquel Pennington at UFC 224.

“Whatever she wants to say right now, she’s going to say,” Nunes today told MMAjunkie. “I don’t have anything to say right now. The UFC knows the truth. I don’t really care.”

Nunes (15-4 MMA, 8-1 UFC) said she shifted her focus to Pennington (9-5 MMA, 6-2 UFC) when the UFC offered the bout. Nunes said Cyborg (20-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) had the chance to make the champion vs. champion fight, but Cyborg chose to face Invicta FC bantamweight champion Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 222.

“I can’t be waiting, maybe next month, maybe two months – no,” Nunes said. “I’m going to fight the next contender. After that, I don’t know. I have a lot of contenders, and we’ll see what the best move is for my career. I’m not going to wait for anybody.”

Cyborg apparently feels the same. She said Nunes will have to formally return to the featherweight division and work her way toward a title shot if the UFC 226 booking isn’t made.

“I’m beginning to think Amanda Nunes only brought up my name to negotiate a new deal with the UFC,” Cyborg wrote in a statement. “Like a lot of the girls, she just wants to use my name to build her brand.”

UFC President Dana White has twice said the champion vs. champion is the fight to be made. But it’s been harder than expected to put pen to paper.

For her part, Nunes doesn’t rule out the possibility of fighting at UFC 226. But she isn’t making the decision based on Cyborg’s timetable. If the promotion wants to pair her with the women’s featherweight camp, she’ll agree despite serious reservations.

“I’m in my camp right now for (Pennington),” Nunes said of the pay-per-view fight, which headlines UFC 224 at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro. “I’m going to lose weight for 135. My body is going to be small. Do you think I’m supposed to jump into another camp right after a fight? I don’t think that’s fair.

“When you finish a fight, you have to rest and go on vacation and recover, and then do another camp. If you’re going to fight at 100 percent, especially go up one weight class, you really have to prepare to go up. And I need time.

“If they give it to me, I have no problem to fight Cyborg. But I don’t think it’s fair if they want to make me fight right away. You want to give Cyborg a present, give me (the fight while I’m) small and just come off a camp and fought. I don’t think it’s fair.”

For more on UFC 224, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.