Cris Cyborg Says Amanda Nunes Could Be Her Last Opponent

In an interview with MMA Junkie, UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg said that if a super fight with Amanda Nunes happens in December, it could be her last in the UFC. Here are highlights:

On wanting a new fight: “Friday, last week, I talked to the UFC, and I said I wanted to fight, that I’m ready to fight. I’ve been training, ready, and I want to fight. They offered me September, the 8th, in Dallas, to fight Amanda. I said that’s fine. I’ll fight. I’ve been training. I’m ready. A champion has to be ready all the time. Then on Monday they said (she) didn’t accept Sept. 8. Then I said I wanted to fight anyway. I want to fight. I don’t want to be idle. And then Amanda sent the picture, saying she accepted the fight on Dec. 29.”

On Nunes taking so long: “It’s the same as someone arriving at your house, knocking at your door and asking you to throw down, and then they say, ‘Wait, I need one year to prepare.’ When you do that, you have to be ready for when the fight happens. But then to need six months to prepare, one year? I think it’s disrespectful toward me, to wait one year for a person to be ready. I have no problem with fighting Amanda on Dec. 29. She wants time to be ready. But I believe I could fight before that, not wait all this time. Especially because we get paid when we fight. I don’t think it’s right for the girls in Amanda’s division to wait one year to fight. I know that Ketlen Vieira, she deserves to fight for the belt. So if (Nunes) needs all this time to move up a weight class, heal her leg, whatever time she needs, then she should vacate the belt and do an interim belt so Vieira has her shot at the belt.”

On the end of her UFC contract: “I believe (Nunes) will be my last fight in the UFC. My contract goes until March, and with me waiting to fight in December, I think it will be the last one people will see me fight.”