Germaine de Randamie refuses to fight Cris Cyborg, willing to let UFC strip title

Since Germaine de Randamie won the UFC women’s featherweight championship by defeating Holly Holm earlier this year, Cris Cyborg has continually called for a fight against the champion.

Despite Cyborg’s persistence, de Randamie, the UFC, and Cyborg have been unable to come to an agreement. In an interesting statement released to MMAJunkie following rumors of de Randamie vacating the belt several weeks ago, de Randamie’s manager revealed that his fighter would be willing to even potentially go as far as to let the UFC strip her of her belt:

“Germaine and her team have talked, and the position is that she will not fight ‘Cyborg’ because ‘Cyborg’ is a known and proven cheater. Even after so much scrutiny has been put on ‘Cyborg,’ she still managed to pop for something and will always be a person of suspicion who is trying to beat the system rather than just conforming to the rules.”

“Germaine and her team don’t believe that ‘Cyborg’ should be allowed to compete in the UFC at all,” Butler said. “If that is the only fight the UFC wants, then Germaine is willing to wait and see if the UFC will strip her belt before making her next move.”

Cyborg for her part is doing everything in her power to secure a fight with GDR, taking to social media to call for a fight with the champ:

No one thinks the @ufc 145lbs belt is a world championship. @IronLadyMMA you can't beat someone with 2 straight losses 2b champ @seanshelby

— #UFC214 #LetsGoChamp (@criscyborg) May 26, 2017

Some people are so afraid to lose that they will find every excuse not to try. @IronLadyMMA you can't doubt yourself champs are confident

— #UFC214 #LetsGoChamp (@criscyborg) May 26, 2017

It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out.

Stay glued to BJPenn.com for updates as they become available.

on 5/27/2017.