Cris Cyborg Turned Down Two 145-Pound Title Fights According to White
Cris Cyborg turned down two featherweight title fights against Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie according to UFC President Dana White.
UFC President Dana White appeared on the UFC Unfiltered podcast and stated the promotion decided to offer Cyborg a chance to fight for the championship with the inception of a new women’s featherweight division. However, Cyborg decided against taking the bouts after experiencing a very difficult weight cut for her last fights, at the catchweight of 140-pounds.
“What’s crazy about that is this: I offered Cris Cyborg a title fight at 145 pounds a month ago,” said White, “She had eight weeks to get ready for it; she said she couldn’t make the weight.”
“So then I offered her another 145-pound title fight for Brooklyn, she turned it down. She turned down two 145-pound title fights. One because she couldn’t make 145 pounds in eight weeks and Joe Silva’s like, ‘If she can’t make 145 pounds in eight weeks, 145 isn’t the right weight class for her either.'”
Cyborg (16-1) is the reigning Invicta FC featherweight champion and has long hoped for a featherweight division in the UFC, but White has been reluctant to build a division for Cyborg, apparently up until now.
“First of all, obviously when we did the deal with Cyborg, we sat down with her and said, ‘Listen, if you make it down to 135 pounds, maybe we can hire a dietitian and help you get there and get you in the mix….then fight Ronda (Rousey) for the title,” said White.
Cyborg told MMA Fighting.com that she turned down the featherweight fights with Holly Holm and Germaine De Randamie because of the last weight cut, which she documented on social media and gave her a definite health scare. Part of the statement to MMA Fighting reads as follows:
“In my last weight cut I almost died. I was in the bathtub cutting weight, and I thought, ‘I will die in this bathtub.’ It was the worst weight cut in my life. My nutritionist George Lockhart, who, by the way, is a UFC employee, didn’t do an effective job with this birth control pill he indicated saying that would help me. But thank God, in a war, I made weight, cutting 24 pounds in a week. My body was retaining a lot of water. The last time I spoke with George Lockhart was in the locker room before my fight. He disappeared after the fight. I’m not working with him anymore.”
Want your voice heard? Join the Cage Pages team!
The statement also states that Cris Cyborg is currently battling depression and will not fight at the weight class ever again.
“This doesn’t have to do with weight. Obviously it has nothing to do with weight cutting. I don’t know what it has to do with, so we’re gonna figure it out,” said White.
While White seems frustrated at Cris Cyborg’s refusal to accept the two fights that were offered to her, it seems safe to say that this will be all sorted out eventually and the UFC is finally willing to at least contemplate building a division around the mega star, who many consider the best female fighter in MMA. A fight with Rousey doesn’t seem will ever happen, but at least it shouldn’t be the last time we see Cyborg in the octagon.
More from Cage Pages
This article originally appeared on 
