Cris Cyborg’s UFC contract is up, and she hasn’t forgotten the way some of the promotion’s most public figures treated her back in the day.
Cyborg finished out her UFC contract with a one-sided unanimous-decision victory over Felicia Spencer on Saturday at UFC 240.
The former UFC, Strikeforce and Invicta FC champion has options. She could re-sign with the UFC, which likely would lead to a big-money rematch with the only woman to defeat her during her UFC tenure, current featherweight and bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes.
She could go to Bellator, where a fight with featherweight champion Julia Budd, who hasn’t lost since 2011, seems like a ratings winner.
Or she could pursue other opportunities, including boxing, which she’s repeatedly expressed a desire to try at some point.
But for now, there’s the matter of the ugly insults hurled at Cyborg by both White, the UFC president, and Rogan, the longtime color commentator and analyst.
White, for his part, mocked Cyborg and compared her to Wanderlei Silva during a scrum with reporters in April 2014. Rogan — who had a curious call of Cyborg’s fight Saturday, painting a picture that suggested Spencer was winning while even the stats flashed on the screen repeatedly showed Cyborg outstriking Spencer by a wide-margin — once made crude anatomical jokes about Cyborg on his podcast.
Cyborg hasn’t forgotten, and this clearly could be a factor as the sides negotiate going forward:
You know who’s never publicly insulted Cyborg? Bellator president Scott Coker. Cyborg headlined what was then the biggest show in the Coker-run Strikeforce’s history with Gina Carano in 2009, back when the UFC refused to acknowledge that women’s fighting was even a thing.
Sure seems like Cyborg hasn’t forgotten that, either.
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