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Following UFC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg‘s win over Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 222, she was asked about and weighed in on a potential match-up with bantamweight champion and fellow Brazilian Amanda Nunes.
Though Cyborg hadn’t sought a fight with her countrywoman, Nunes has often thrown out the idea of moving up in weight to challenge for Cyborg’s featherweight title. It’s a bout that she wants and one that UFC president Dana White is now angling for, even though Nunes had tentatively agreed to headline UFC 224, putting her belt on the line against Raquel Pennington.
With White indicating that he might now be willing to forgo the Nunes vs. Pennington match-up in order to make Cyborg vs. Nunes the next bout for both champions, Cyborg was asked what she thought about Nunes and how she felt she matched up against her fellow Brazilian.
Though it’s not a fight she initially wanted, Cyborg isn’t wiling to back down from a challenge, and her confidence heading into the potential match-up is no less than it has been for all her other bouts.
Cyborg and Nunes both now appear ready for the match-up, but there hasn’t yet been any definitive word on if or when it might happen. Cyborg has mostly ruled out a potential showdown at UFC 224, but there’s a more high profile date that could be a sensible target.
UFC 226 already features a champion vs. champion headlining bout between heavyweight titleholder Stipe Miocic and light heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier. There has also been talk of trying to get bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw to challenge flyweight titleholder Demetrious Johnson on the same card.
If that happens, how blockbuster would the UFC’s annual cornerstone event during International Fight Week be if Cyborg vs. Nunes became the third champion vs. champion bout on the UFC 222 fight card. It would be an unprecedented event in the history of the UFC.
