Amanda Nunes Wants to Beat Cris Cyborg Then Get Beers Together

This new year has been threatening to be the year of the superfights, but so far none of them have been made official. One of these fights that Dana White has said he wants to make is women’s UFC bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes challenging Cris Cyborg for the women’s UFC featherweight title. It’s a fight Cyborg hasn’t seemed thrilled about, but one that Nunes is absolutely pushing for. She wants to be a two-division champion by any means necessary. With a lower division already ruled out, her only choice is up at featherweight.

“Honestly, I think [Cyborg] wants this fight and it’s the fight UFC wants. I want this fight to be good. I don’t have anything against her. At all. I think this is a business deal. After the fight we can have a beer, you know what I mean? It’s not personal. I think it would be awesome. I would be ready, in Brazil, in Vegas, or whatever. Whatever country, let’s 100 percent make this happen. We’re going to renegotiate the contract for this fight. That is the fight I want, yes. Whatever happens, I’m going to be ready.”

First of all, I have nothing personal against @criscyborg I do believe it is the fight that everyone wants to see and a fight where we can both leave our marks on this sport.

— Amanda Nunes (@Amanda_Leoa) January 6, 2018

“First of all, I think about going to 125. This was one of my goals, because I want to be a champion in two divisions. And I sit down with my coach and my whole team and we discuss and talk about my next step to go to either one division, 145 or 125. And I decide I’m going to go to 125. … But then, when I saw my diet, everything I had to go through to go down, I think about it a little bit. Honest to god, it’s hard. Sometimes for me, [getting to] 135 is a little bit hard because I don’t have that much fat left. It goes down my muscles, it’s bad. Going to 125, I don’t even want to talk about it. I tried it for two days and after that, I can’t.” — Amanda Nunes speaking to MMA Fighting.

With a shortage of featherweight contenders (as well as the next bantamweight contender injured) and the division blank on the UFC’s website, a superfight with Amanda Nunes not only makes sense, but would draw more than any other Cyborg or women’s featherweight fight so far. Despite the size difference, it’s also a very compelling style match-up against the only other person to beat Ronda Rousey. Everyone involved seems to want this fight to go down so far besides Cyborg, so it will be interesting to see if it gets done.

1/19/2018.