Cris Cyborg says Dana White blocked potential grappling match between her and Miesha Tate

Out of all the opponents Cris “Cyborg” Justino has fought in her career, Miesha Tate never wound up being one of them.

The former UFC bantamweight champion in Tate is currently set to make her return to MMA action after a five-year retirement. However, it seemed as if she and Cyborg had a real possibility of testing themselves against one another.

Cyborg shared this week how the two were actually planning to grapple in a Submission Underground match. That was until UFC boss Dana White stopped the fun.

“I’m not surprised,” Cyborg said on The Catch Up with Cris Cyborg & James Lynch. “He doesn’t want this to happen. She wants to have a couple fights more, she says it’s not the end of the line, now she can have the opportunity to do this fight in the future. She said she’d really like to do [it] but you know the story. Dana wants nothing to do with Cyborg. But I believe in the future maybe the fans would like to watch.”

Cyborg and Tate aren’t the only victims of the UFC preventing outside activities as of late. Just this past week, Georges St-Pierre revealed how he was stopped from competing in a possible boxing match with Oscar De La Hoya.

“The fighters don’t have forever,” Cyborg said. “We have to use every moment of opportunity that we have. Okay, your manager and you decide one thing is good for a career, [the promoter] is supposed to let it go, let them do it. There’s no help with the fighter. They’re gonna make extra money, extra publicity, extra matches, it’s going to be better. But I don’t know, I’m glad to be free of this.”

The current Bellator featherweight queen earned her second title defense via fifth-round TKO of Leslie Smith at Bellator 259.