A few days ago, UFC featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie, doubled down on avoiding the fact that she must one day fight Cris Cyborg, officially put the kibosh on Cyborg’s UFC championship aspirations. Speaking with ESPN, de Randamie explained that Cyborg is a cheater, and they would rather be stripped than fight her:
“Germaine and her team have talked, and the position is that she will not fight Cyborg because Cyborg is a 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.
For that reason, Germaine and her team don’t believe that Cyborg should be allowed to compete in the UFC at all. 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.”
Before she won the title at UFC 208, de Randamie was all for fighting Cyborg, but then she beat Holly Holm (after hitting her multiple times after the bell) then immediately stated in her post-fight speech that she’d either: give Holm a rematch, or get surgery on her injured hand thus delaying the Cyborg fight inevitably. Somehow, de Randamie was holding the featherweight title for perhaps two minutes before being accused of ducking Cyborg. This latest statement doesn’t help.
Now Cyborg, who has some issues of her own stemming from punching Angela Magana at the UFC fighter’s retreat, is without a UFC 214 opponent. An opponent that was supposed to be de Randamie, but now may be Invicta featherweight champ, Megan Anderson. Cyborg gave her thoughts to MMA Fighting:
“She’s running, scared to enter the Octagon with me. That’s another one of her excuses to not enter the Octagon with me. That’s really not my problem, it’s the UFC’s (problem). And she’s also stating that USADA is not legit.”
It’s hard to feel sorry for Cyborg. She’s dominated for a decade, but also popped for anabolic steroids in Strikeforce before also failing a test a few months ago before she was given a retroactive exemption. Still, de Randamie has multiple losses to smaller opponents — UFC bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes and Julia Budd.
Is she making a moral stance or just plain old ducking?
