'Cyborg' Justino forgives Dana White, hopes to sign new UFC contract after UFC 214

Cristiane Justino is ready to give UFC President Dana White another opportunity to have a solid, working relationship after he admitted to making mistakes when it comes to promoting her.

“She’s had a rough go here in the UFC,” White told MMAjunkie last month. “She hasn’t been thrilled with things that have been said, things that have been done. And to be honest with you, we’ve made some mistakes when it comes to ‘Cyborg.’ So the least we can do is get our (expletive) together and get this woman a fight for the title.”

Although White has made some completely unnecessary and harsh comments about “Cyborg” over the years, he said he wants to move past it. Justino (17-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC), who fights Tonya Evinger (19-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC) for the vacant UFC women’s featherweight title on Saturday at UFC 214, said she’s willing to forgive, but not necessarily forget.

“It’s really nice when someone does a mistake and then say that,” Justino said at Thursday’s UFC 214 open workouts. “A lot of people never say anything. I respect that. I think I can forgive him, but there’s a lot of consequences. There are a lot of things people say about me on the Internet, a lot of bad things I don’t want to remember now. But it’s hard to clean everything. But in time it’s going to change. He says he wants to change and work together. Let’s see. I’ll give it a chance and see how it’s going to work.

“I forgive him, but I think there’s a lot of consequences that are going to happen.”

UFC 214 takes place at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Justino vs. Evinger takes place on the pay-per-view main card following prelims on FXX and UFC Fight Pass.

One of the consequences could potentially be Justino leaving the UFC sooner than later. Her current contract expires in October and apparently is void of a “champion’s clause.” The UFC reportedly owns an exclusive one-year negotiation and matching period, but Justino wasn’t ready to commit to sticking around.

“We don’t know,” Justino said. “I want to work together. Let’s see how it’s going to work. I think we’ll keep talking, and I think maybe after this fight (we will sign a new contract).”

For more on UFC 214, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.