UFC president Dana White wants featherweight champion Cris Cyborg to fight bantamweight titleholder Amanda Nunes next. Nunes wants to fight Cyborg. Cyborg wants a true 145-pound contender.
Though Cyborg had called for former Invicta FC featherweight champion Megan Anderson for her next fight, it appears that Anderson still isn’t prepared to return to the cage.
Nunes has been lobbying for a bout with Cyborg for quite some time, so White quickly zeroed in on it, saying, “Amanda Nunes wants to fight Cyborg. That is the fight to make and that is the fight I will make.”
Soon after White declared that he would book Cyborg vs. Nunes, his featherweight champion put out a defiant statement, saying that she wanted to fight a deserving contender in her division and that if Nunes wanted to fight her, she should at least get a win under her belt at 145 pounds first.
Highly active on social media, Cyborg took to Twitter late Friday and continued to shoot down the idea of fighting Nunes next, remaining steadfast that she owed it to her division to fight a top 145-pound contender instead of the champion of a lighter weight class.
I will fight the #1 contender available with a win at 145 in the last year next. My mark on the sport will be opening doors for all women
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
I would have been in the @ufc much sooner if women really wanted to work together to build the sport and opportunities for all athletes.
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
I fought Leslie Smith in Curitiba in front of 50k fans Lina 1.3 million on @fs1 Tonya and Holly both big PPV’s #cyborgnation will watch me https://t.co/YJdjOjrw7m
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
There are many women in the world fighting at 145. Keep drinking the kool aide if you believe that
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
Y tell me I cnt fight in the @ufc for 5 years bcuz there are no girls then sign me 2 fight all the girls that were fighting bw 5 years ago? https://t.co/34Q7Rgj22e
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
The problem with the Age of Money Fights is that without independent rankings #1 contenders never get to fight for a world title https://t.co/271h3cUASe
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
If we just wanted good fights then why did I fight outside the ufc for so long? Why put a belt at 145? Rankings have to matter
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
There are many fighters at 145 the @Mickmaynard2 knows that
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
The same people telling me @Amanda_Leoa is my biggest test were saying I only fight smaller girls last week when I fought @HollyHolm
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
135 was never more credible than featherweight. They took the two best divisions of 125 and 145 and killed them to make the Ronda weight
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
Truth is both #ufc214 and #ufc219 I explained to the matchmakers I needed to fight a true 145lber for the belt to establish its integrity
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
Contracts are Champion incentive based! 2b a #1 contender n not be able 2 fight 4 the belt bcuz of popularity should concern all fighters https://t.co/qRIBQbpeZ0
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
Poor judging by the refs doesn’t mean that fight was close. I won every round pic.twitter.com/qOL3DQMyCX
— #CyborgNation (@criscyborg) January 6, 2018
