Cris Cyborg doesn’t want to fight Amanda Nunes ‘because Brazil vs. Brazil is not cool’
UFC featherweight Cris Cyborg has no interest in fighting fellow Brazilian and champion Amanda Nunes.
Cris Cyborg and Amanda Nunes are two of the three current UFC women’s champions, so a superfight of sorts between the two Brazilians would make for a lot of intrigue. But it’s a matchup Cyborg hopes to avoid at all costs.
Cyborg, who recently won the vacant UFC featherweight title with a TKO win over Tonya Evinger at UFC 214, said she doesn’t want fight Nunes, the UFC 135-pound titleholder, because they are both from Brazil — she wants to see her fellow Brazilians do as well as possible.
This, of course, does not contradict Nunes’ wishes — even before Cyborg was UFC champ, “The Lioness” said multiple times she wasn’t interested in a fight with Cyborg.
"I’d fight Amanda, but I have no interest in fighting her,” Cyborg recently told media in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (via MMAFighting.com). "We’re two Brazilians, and that would ‘kill' one Brazilian. Why kill one if we’re representing the same country? It’s us against the world.
"But if it’s an interesting fight for the fans, if they want this one day, we can do it,” Cyborg said. "It’s like ‘Claudinha’ (Gadelha) fighting Jessica (Andrade at UFC Japan). I don’t think it would be cool because we’re Brazilians, but I’d do it. I would avoid it, because Brazil vs. Brazil is not cool, and I think fans would be split."
Cyborg (18-1) is 3-0 in the Octagon with finishes over Evinger, Lina Lansberg, and Leslie Smith. The former Invicta FC champion has had a rocky run in the top MMA organization, from an ordeal with anti-doping partner USADA to the UFC booking Germaine de Randamie vs. Holly Holm for the inaugural 145-pound title.
But with the belt finally around her waist, her relationship with the organization is starting to improve. Cyborg, whose UFC contract expires in October, is hoping to fight former bantamweight champ Holly Holm in her first title defense.