Former Invicta FC champion Felicia Spencer made an impressive UFC debut this past Saturday, submitting Megan Anderson in the first round of their UFC on ESPN+ 10 main-card fight.
Spencer, 28, was asked afterward what could be next, and she wasn’t entirely sure. Although, in a super thin division, the options are few, and the one that came up was former UFC champ Cris Cyborg, who is down to do it at July’s UFC 240 in Edmonton. But should Spencer really leap all the way to a matchup with Cyborg right after her debut? MMA Junkie’s John Morgan, Fernanda Prates and Ben Fowlkes sound off in this edition of “Triple Take.”
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John Morgan: Spencer’s time is coming, but no need to rush it
Mark my words: Felicia Spencer will one day be the UFC women’s featherweight champion. The skills she’s shown on her way up the ranks of Invicta FC proved that she is championship caliber, and her mindset – willing to take on either Cris Cyborg or Amanda Nunes after just one fight in the UFC – is exactly what it takes to succeed at the highest level. But time is on her side.
Just seven fights into her MMA career, Spencer has shown that she’s capable of both quick finishes and grinding victories. She’s certainly not hesitant to strike with opponents, but she also possesses an ability to dominate fights on the floor. In some ways, that’s what makes a fight with Cyborg intriguing. After all, I think most of us always believed the way to beat the Brazilian slugger was to take her out of her element – that is, until Nunes did the unthinkable and knocked her out on the feet.
But Spencer doesn’t need to try and repeat that accomplishment just yet.
Sure, it’s easy to argue there aren’t really any other fights for her to take. Spencer just beat Megan Anderson, which leaves Nunes and Cyborg as the only other real featherweight options available at this time. But UFC officials seem keen to develop this weight class – and with good reason. With that in mind, I believe they’ll be able to find more opponents for Spencer, whether it be against full-time featherweights or not. That added experience would be wise.
After watching her in action for more than a decade, I can say one thing for certain: Fighting Cyborg is different.
If you watch closely enough in most of her fights, you can see the moment her opponents realize it. The way she moves, the power of her shots, the confidence in her aggression – it’s different, and that’s just what happens in the cage.
Fight week brings more attention than you’ve ever handled before. Most of it entails media asking about how you plan to deal with the unstoppable monster that will be standing on the other side of the cage. Sure, you believe in yourself, but with so many other people suggesting you might be in over your head, maybe they’re right?
The variables around a fight with Cyborg reach levels Spencer hasn’t even considered at this point, less than four minutes into her UFC career. Her time is coming. There’s no need to rush it.
Next page – Fernanda Prates: If Cyborg isn’t next, then who is?
Fernanda Prates: If Cyborg isn’t next, then who is?
Let me preface this by saying that I do not disagree with John Morgan when he says that it would be wise to let Felicia Spencer get more experience before just throwing her to the wolves.
Under ideal conditions, we wouldn’t be talking about a UFC debutante facing someone like Cris Cyborg. Spencer has seven pro MMA bouts, while Cyborg has 22. Spencer’s pro MMA debut was in 2015, while Cyborg’s was in 2005. Cyborg not only has held the UFC 145-pound belt until very recently, but she also terrorized the division for more than a decade.
Spencer is a breath of fresh air in a division that desperately needs it, and I absolutely get the desire to protect that from someone who could bring it all to a violent, premature halt. But then again, the UFC featherweight division doesn’t really allow for “under ideal conditions” thinking, does it?
First off, it’s not like Spencer just materialized out of thin air into the UFC. She was, like Cyborg, an Invicta FC champ. And you know who was also an Invicta FC champ coming into the UFC? Megan Anderson, whom Spencer just handily beat.
As a reminder, when a 9-2 Anderson was first brought into the promotion, the idea was for her to face Cyborg. The two were supposed to meet at UFC 214, with the then-vacant title on the line. Granted, the division has gotten a few additions since then, but it’s still not exactly overflowing with names.
For a while there, everyone was just happy with the idea of Cyborg facing a real featherweight in Anderson. Well, Anderson was just beaten by another real featherweight.
If we were OK with Anderson fighting Cyborg – for a title, no less – right away back then, why wouldn’t we be OK with seeing Spencer get the same opponent after such an impressive debut?
If anything, now that champ-champ Amanda Nunes has shown that Cyborg can be defeated, it makes for a much more interesting matchup. If Spencer wins, we’ve got ourselves another big player in the featherweight picture. If she doesn’t, then maybe Cyborg can get that Nunes rematch while Spencer makes her way back up – which, at 28, she’ll have plenty of time to do.
Again, I’m all for allowing people time to grow and develop their potential. But these are the facts of the division. If Cyborg isn’t next for Spencer, who is?
Next page – Ben Fowlkes: A fight with Cyborg seems like the easiest way to ruin Spencer
Ben Fowlkes: A fight with Cyborg seems like the easiest way to ruin Spencer
I agree there’s reason to be excited about where Felicia Spencer can go. I also agree that the UFC’s women’s featherweight division is still so thin that it’s just one step up from non-existent. But if Spencer gets talked into a fight with Cris Cyborg when she’s still just seven bouts into her pro career, she would be right to wonder if maybe those around her don’t have her best interests at heart.
I can see why Cyborg might like the idea. She needs to go out there and beat someone up to remind us of the days when she was a terrifying juggernaut. She’s probably not worried about Spencer’s ground game, nor is she particularly impressed by what she brings to the table physically or athletically. To Cyborg, Spencer probably looks like a lot of people she’s mauled in her past.
Which is not to say that Spencer has no chance. She’s a good, smart fighter. She’s definitely on her way up. Just seems like the easiest way to ruin that is to overmatch her too soon against a buzzsaw like Cyborg.
Who should Spencer fight instead? I don’t know. But if I were her I’d be patient. The UFC is at least acting like it wants to build this division. Let it prove that by stocking it with some other fighters. It shouldn’t have to be one UFC win and then into the meat grinder you go. Cyborg has more than twice as many knockout wins than Spencer has fights. That’s not a challenge Spencer needs to go sprinting after just yet.
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