The UFC yesterday announced the inaugural women’s featherweight title fight which will take place in Brooklyn, New York on February 11th at UFC 208. That was the good news. The bad news? It won’t involve Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino.
The UFC officially announced Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie will contest the new UFC 145lb championship, launching the women’s featherweight division. Earlier this month Cyborg explained her reasons for not accepting an offer to fight Holm and Randamie due to health issues she was still dealing with from her last catchweight 140lb fight for the UFC.
And now Cyborg, who had seemed a lock in to feature in the inaugural 145lb title fight, a division she’s been dominating for so long, is upset at the UFC’s decision not to wait for her.
“I’m happy the UFC created my division,” Cyborg told MMA Fighting. “It’s been 11 years, I’m fighting for women to have the same rights as men with several divisions. Everybody knows I’m the featherweight champion. I’m undefeated for 10 years in my division.
“They put this belt only to sell the fight for the new MMA fans. For an example, Holly is coming off two consecutive losses and will fight for the belt. The real fight fans know what’s real.”
When asked if she had expectations to fight the winner of Holm vs. de Randamie, Cyborg used the recent Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis interim featherweight title fight as an example of how confusing the UFC matchmaking seems to be to her as of late.
“I have no idea, there are no rules in MMA,” Cyborg said. “The last fight in the men’s 145lb division, a 10-0 fighter fought a guy who was 1-5 in his last fights. Other fighters like me have to wait for a title fight… This is our reality.”
