Amanda Nunes MMA’s Most Feared Woman
Gracious in defeat, Cris Cyborg was upset about not getting mic time after title loss at UFC 232
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Cris Cyborgisn’t happy about her title-costing loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 232, after suffering a shocking upset that spoiled a 13-year unbeaten streak, Cyborg says she hasn’t cried.
In fact, as Cyborg said in a graceful post-fight interview with reporters after her shocking 51-second knockout loss at Saturday’s co-headliner, she isn’t planning on doing any crying at any point.
The UFC’s former 145-pound champion has, after all, lost before. And while there’s a lot that happened between her only two MMA losses, Cyborg’s attitude toward setbacks remains the same.
“In the beginning, when I did my first MMA fight, I lost my first fight,” Cyborg said backstage at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. “I trained for three months, six months, I think. I started training MMA. I did my first fight and I lost. After this day, I trained harder, harder, harder and I stayed 13 years undefeated. I never said I’m going to be invincible. Like, ‘I’m never going to lose,’ I never said that.
“I just work hard. And I did everything for this fight. I trained hard. I did everything I could. My team didn’t everything. And it happened, today is not my day, I lost. It happens (in) the fight game.”
As someone who’s been in sports since 12, Cyborg (20-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) says she’s learned that wins and losses come with the territory. She did everything in her power to prepare for Nunes (17-4 MMA, 10-1 UFC) and it simply didn’t go her way. Everybody, Cyborg pointed out, has bad days at the job. This was hers.
“They just kicked me out of the cage,” Cyborg said. “I think (that was) very bad, very disrespectful, because I did a lot for this sport. And I was supposed to say hello to my fans – talk to them (and say) everything’s all right.”
But what’s done is done, Cyborg says, and she understands that the situation could have simply been a time-related rush due to the night’s headlining bout – and not anyone’s conscious call.
“It’s OK,” Cyborg said. “I just feel like I was supposed to say something. Two Brazilians fighting. Two champions. That’s it.”
There were, indeed, two champions fight that night, but only one leaving the cage. Nunes is now the first woman to earn two titles in the UFC – and only the third fighter overall to hold two simultaneous belts in the promotion, after Conor McGregor and Daniel Cormier.
That is no small feat. In fact, it’s the type of feat that many believe grants Nunes the title of GOAT of women’s MMA. That group includes UFC president Dana White, but apparently not Cyborg.
“Amanda, OK, she’s won today, but she had four losses,” Cyborg said. “And then I have two losses. How she can be the greatest? And she didn’t even rematch her opponents. I can rematch her.
“… She has four losses – the greatest in history would be to never lose.”
That doesn’t mean, however, that Cyborg doesn’t respect Nunes or what she’s done for the sport. In fact, it’s quite the opposite; Cyborg believes that Nunes is, like her, someone who had to earn recognition. Now, with two titles on her shoulders and finishes over Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate and Cyborg, the ex-champ hopes she’ll get it.
“Amanda had to always prove it,” Cyborg said in her native Portuguese. “She beat Ronda, she beat many girls. I think she was never valued as she should be. Maybe with this win she will be. Maybe, today, God used me to bless her.”
And as for that rematch? Well, White and Nunes don’t seem to be that excited about it. But Cyborg is, understandably, interested.
“Of course, I can rematch any time Dana White want to put together,” Cyborg said. “I love (to) fight. And this just put more fire in my heart to continue (to) fight. Of course. And Jorina Baars (who beat Cyborg in a Muay Thai match in 2014), I want to rematch, too. I always say this. When I stop fighting MMA, I want to go to muay Thai and rematch her. I never want to go step in the cage and say I want to prove something. I like to improve.”
