Cris Cyborg Was Never My Friend
I'm not sure what the odds are, but I'd peg them at better than 50 percent. The odds for what, you ask? Well, the odds that by the time Cris Cyborg figures out where she is going to fight next we'll hear a red-faced and black-shirted Dana White, utter something along the lines of "Cris Cyborg and I were never friends, we were work associates."
On Saturday, Cyborg competes in the final fight of her UFC contract. There's a non-zero chance that her matchup against Felicia Spencer in the co-main event of UFC 240 will be her last bout under the UFC banner. The former women's featherweight champion has already said she plans on testing the free-agent market. As one of the most feared fighters of the past 10 or so years, the 34-year-old Brazilian is sure to attract her fair share of suitors — and cash — lots of cash.
With Cyborg potentially leaving the UFC, White has been doing his best to paint her as a coward of sorts.
"She loves me; we're really good friends, her and I," White jokingly told MMA Junkie this week. "She's mad at me again for some reason. Listen: I'm not saying anything negative about Cyborg. She does not want to fight Amanda Nunes. That is a fact. Why she would be mad at me because she doesn't want to fight Amanda Nunes is beyond me. I have no problem with Cris. I said many times earlier when she first came in there were obviously some things we had to squash and fix, and I thought we had done that. I've had a decent working relationship with her. Believe me, I've had much worse.
"I have no ill will toward her, and when I say she doesn't want to fight Amanda, and I say that I don't blame her, I'm not talking about her or being negative toward her. These are facts. Amanda Nunes wants to fight Cyborg. We want to make an Amanda Nunes vs. Cyborg fight. Cyborg does not. That's a fact."
You catch all that? The only thing missing was White saying, "with all due respect" before repeatedly stressing the "fact" that Cyborg doesn't want to fight the woman who took Cyborg's title from her via knockout in December. What White fails to mention is that Cyborg did say she wanted that rematch at the post-fight press conference after the loss. At that same post-fight event, both White and Nunes more or less blew off the idea of a rematch. But why let the truth get in the way of Dana White's supposed facts?
What Cyborg might not want is the extra-special "one-fight deal" White offered Cyborg. You know, the deal, the one where if she wins she'll be tied to the UFC as long as she is the champion.
White has always been a bit prickly when fighters are getting ready to walk out the door. Remember when Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was preparing to fight out his contract in 2013? I do. At the press conference for that event, White, who only publicly shares fighter finances when he wants to attempt to shame someone, put Jackson's business in the streets, while at the same time seeming to oddly lend himself some street cred for knowing some skateboarders and surfers.
"Listen, if you want to be mad at me and mad at the UFC, feel however you want to feel," White said at UFC on FOX 6 in Chicago. "I feel like I've been there for 'Rampage,' I feel like I've done right for him. I haven't kept it a secret, I've said, this guy came out in an interview and said skateboarders make more than him.
"Rampage, since 2007, has made, from 2007 to 2012, $15.2 million in the UFC. I know a lot of skateboarders, it's weird, but I actually kind of live in that world, I'm into that, skating, surfing ... unless you're talking about Tony Hawk or Rob Dyrdek , skateboarders aren't making $15.2 million. The way that he's acting, the way that he treated the media today, the media is here to ask you questions and talk to you, this is part of the deal, it's how this works. I actually feel kind of sorry for him. Whatever he's got in his mind, he's playing this thing the wrong way. Whenever his fight his over, we're either going to do a new deal or not do a new deal, we'll see what happens, but, I just think he is handling this the wrong way."
Jackson signed with Bellator after that. Don't be shocked if Cyborg turns her back on the UFC to hear White put Cyborg's UFC finances out into the world, along with any other petty grievance he has about how she handled herself and her business while she fought for the promotion.
I'm still shocked that Cyborg signed with the UFC in the first place. Let's not forget, White once said that she looked like "Wanderlei Silva in a dress and heels."
White also did nothing when Ronda Rousey said of Cyborg (via Yahoo Sports), "This girl has been on steroids for so long and [has been] injecting herself for so long that she's not even a woman anymore. She's an 'it.' It's not good for the women's division. It's not good at all."
So yeah, I was stunned when Cyborg signed with the UFC. I won't be stunned if she leaves.
Another reason Cyborg could walk is the UFC has done next to nothing to bolster the women's featherweight division. At this moment there are six women listed on the featherweight roster. That number includes Cyborg. The promotion crowned its first women's featherweight champ in February 2017.
Anyway, back to White attempting to smear Cyborg. If she leaves, White's scabrous takes will only get worse. The one thing that could keep White's petty vindictiveness from getting downright mean is the fact that he and the UFC now have more eyes on them thanks to the new ownership group and the deal with ESPN. However, I do expect White to tear into Cyborg and her management while his head gets increasingly more crimson if she does walk.
He might even go as far as to rage that Cyborg owes him and the UFC.
I do think Cyborg will walk and I believe she'll wind up with Scott Coker and Bellator.
———-
Music Time:
This is one of the two best records I’ve heard this year. It’s not the happiest song in the world, but the lyrics are good and the songwriting is top notch. This isn’t the best song on the LP, but it is the official first video…
———-
Movie Time:
One of my favorite movies…some days it is my favorite movie:
———
Instagram Time:
