Amanda Nunes Explains Why She Chose Raquel Pennington Fight Over Cris Cyborg

Amanda Nunes spoke on the UFC Unfiltered podcast about her upcoming fight with Raquel Pennington, pushing her fight with Cris Cyborg back and more. Highlights are below, via MMA Fighting:

On taking the fight with Pennington instead of Cyborg: “When I texted Dana White that I wanted the fight, I didn’t have nobody in my division. I didn’t even know if I was gonna fight soon. I was concerned with waiting years because I’ve been in that position before, waiting so long for a fight, I don’t want to do it again and stay waiting, waiting, waiting. But now, we have Rocky [Pennington] and we have the Brazilian, Ketlen [Vieira] and I feel like my division is starting to grow. If you pay attention, the division’s gonna be awesome and now I have two. I have Rocky and I have Ketlen. Rocky is my next step and I want to see Ketlen after, for sure.”

On Vieira’s claim for a title shot: “I think she’s deserving, after this fight against Rocky. She beat the girl that beat me. I think she’s ready and I’m excited to fight her.”

On the fight with Cyborg being delayed: “There’s gonna be a lot of things involved in that. Having the contract for her, for me, it has to make sense for both of us so we can do this. It’s nothing personal against Cyborg. When you become a professional fighter, you want to become the best, you want to beat the best. It’s nothing personal but I feel like there’s a lot of things involved in that and I don’t want to wait for that. I want to keep fighting, I don’t want to wait to negotiate. Right now my division has a new contender and I’m excited for that. Whatever happens after that, we’ll see.”