White: We’ve made mistakes when it comes to Cyborg
Dana White: “The least we can do is get our $#!@ together and get this woman a fight for the title.”
The UFC brought in Cris Cyborg to continue to fight for Invicta FC as she slowly dropped weight, with the idea that she would have a superfight with the then seemingly unbeatable Ronda Rousey. That weight cut proved to be extremely unhealthy, and Ronda Rousey proved to be beatable.
So the UFC decided to go forward with a women’s featherweight division. Then Cyborg needed time to recover from the cut, and a doctor-prescribed medication to restore normal functioning got flagged on an anti-doping test.
In the meantime, the UFC rushed ahead with the weirdest league title fight ever. 0-2 at bantamweight Holly Holm fought Germaine de Randamie, who was outside the top 10 at bantamweight, but won. When Cyborg was healthy enough to return, GDR gave up her belt without a fight. Then Cyborg was scheduled to fight Invicta FC featherweight champion Megan Anderson for the vacant UFC belt, but Anderson suffered issues in her personal life such that she pulled out. So now Cyborg will fight Invicta FC bantamweight champion Tonya Evinger at UFC 214 on July 29.
During an exclusive interview with Matt Erickson and John Morgan for MMAjunkie, White conceded the UFC had made mistakes.
(Anderson) had some personal problems and couldn’t do this fight,” said White. “And Tonya Evinger is a girl who has been around for a long time. She’s tough, she’s gritty, and what I’m really looking for is, I want a woman that’s going to go out and fight ‘Cyborg.’ I believe Tonya Evinger is that woman. We’ll see.
We make it very clear: When you go into that division, you know who you’re going to be fighting. Basically, ‘Cyborg’ owns that division. You go into the 145-pound division and you’re fighting for a belt, you’re going to fight ‘Cyborg.’
We signed ‘Cyborg,’ we made a commitment to ‘Cyborg,’ and not everything is easy and not everything is as fun as other divisions or whatever, but we made a commitment to this woman. She’s had a rough go here in the UFC. She hasn’t been thrilled with things that have been said, things that have been done. And to be honest with you, we’ve made some mistakes when it comes to ‘Cyborg.’ So the least we can do is get our s*** together and get this woman a fight for the title.
White also said no thought was given to folding the featherweight division, so going forward there will be four UFC women’s divisions. And in time, probably more. In the meantime, the greatest fighter in women’s mixed martial arts will finally get to fight for a UFC title.