Cris Cyborg may have some hope yet, as she may not have to wait two years to get her rematch against Amanda Nunes.
While Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White wasn’t too interested in an immediate rematch between Cris and Nunes, the brash head honcho did say the do-over is inevitable. In fact, it could come sooner than expected, as he stated during the UFC on ESPN + 1 presser (see it here) that if both win their next fights, it sets up a big rematch.
“There’s a reason we didn’t do it (champion vs champion fights) for a long time. It’s tough enough to defend one belt, let alone two,” he said. “Amanda is going to have another fight, Cris is going to have another fight. So we will see how that all plays out, and when the time comes ...listen, everyone has their opinion of what they think they want at that point in time,” he added.
“But should they both win another fight, I think a rematch between them is huge. It’s a big fight, important fight. Neither one of them were crazy about the first time and we got it done. We will see how everything plays out.”
White revealed he had no idea Amanda recently stated she had no more interest in fighting at 145 pounds, revealing as much during a recent twitter rant. As for Cris — who coughed up her title to Amanda at UFC 232 (video) — she recently stated she only has one fight left remaining on her UFC deal.
That means she will have an interesting decision to make in the coming months, as she can fight out her contract, hope she gets the win and eventually setup a do-over against “Lioness.” Of course, that would mean Cris would have to re-sign with promotion all over again.
As for Nunes, her next title defense will likely take place at Bantamweight, which means she will now be the third “champ-champ” that hasn’t defend their second title, Conor McGregor and Daniel Cormier being the other two. Still, “DC” does have plans to end his career at 265 pounds, so he could very well be the first.
And Nunes may very well follow soon thereafter.