Cyborg: “It was a new excuse everyday” with Germaine de Randamie

Back in February, Germaine de Randamie scored a narrow decision over Holly Holm to become the UFC’s first-ever women’s featherweight champion. The expectation from there was that she would attempt to defend her title against the division’s consensus best fighter, Cris “Cyborg” Justino.

Unfortunately, de Randamie went radio silent for some time, and ultimately refused to fight Cyborg outright, calling the Brazilian star a cheater and saying she didn’t belong the UFC.

In the end, de Randamie’s refusal to fight Cyborg would force the UFC to strip of her title. Cyborg will now battle Invicta champ Megan Anderson for the vacant throne.

Speaking to Combate (via BloodyElbow), Cyborg looked back on this ordeal with de Randamie, and suggested the Dutch striker never really wanted to fight her.

“We knew she never wanted to fight me. There was some people in her camp that warned me about it, they said she wasn’t going to fight me. I wanted to close the fight as soon as possible. I believe she knew they would do that. I don’t think it came as a surprise, or that she learned about it on the internet. The UFC was in touch with her manager, they wanted to put me against her, but I knew it wouldn’t be that quick.”

“Maybe she was dropping to bantamweight to become a two-division champion. I guess that was her excuse, but she thought she couldn’t defend and keep her belt. She didn’t want the fight. Her first excuse was saying her hand was hurt, then she said she had family problems, then she called me a cheater. It was a new excuse everyday.”

Do you think it’s true that Germaine de Randamie never actually wanted to fight Cyborg? Join the conversation in the comments section.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/21/2017.