Cris Cyborg takes a shot at Dana White and UFC on International Women's day
Former UFC Women's Featherweight Champion Cris Cyborg took a shot at Dana White and the promotion on International Women's Day. Cyborg posted a tweet from her official Twitter account taking a dig at White and his infamous remark that women MMA athletes would never be allowed to fight on UFC canvas.
In a 2011 TMZ Sports interview, Dana White was inquired if he would entertain hosting women's MMA fights under his promotion. To this, the UFC president chuckled and responded by saying "never".
Cris Cyborg reminded the fans on International Women's Day of this unprogressive comment by the UFC president. The current Bellator Featherweight Champion also heaped praise on Scott Coker (Bellator MMA president) who was the first promoter to give a platform to female fighters.
"Fact @ScottCoker gave women’s MMA a platform when other promoters were saying female athletes would never compete in their organizations," said Cyborg in her tweet.
Bellator MMA was ahead of UFC to welcome female fighters with open arms. In 2010, the promotion hosted a Women's Strawweight (115 lbs) tournament alongside its men's Heavyweight and Bantamweight ones. Kickboxer Zoila Gurgel made history by becoming the first-ever female Bellator champion.
UFC removed the blinkers against female fighters and the women's Bantamweight division was inducted into the roster in 2013. Hall of Famer, Ronda Rousey, defeated Liz Carmouche at UFC 157 and became the first-ever female Champion in the promotion.
With this, Women's MMA started picking up pace as Rousey went on to become one of the biggest superstars in combat sports history.
Dana White later apologized for his condescending perspective towards women's MMA. In this interview with AXS TV, Dana White called himself "a big idiot" for his thoughts on Women's MMA back in 2011.
Cris Cyborg irked with Dana White even after leaving UFC
It was reported on Saturday night that Cris Cyborg's van was parked near the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It has been speculated that Cyborg was keeping a close eye on UFC 259. Amanda Nunes, who captured the Featherweight strap against Cyborg, was making her title defense in the co-main event.
Leading up to Nunes' recent title defense, her knockout of Cris Cyborg (UFC 232) was heavily used to promote the fight. Dana White believes that this might have been the reason why the former UFC champion was not happy.
Cris Cyborg was released from the UFC in 2019. Since then, the fighter has been adamant about a rematch with Amanda Nunes, the current Female Bantamweight and Featherweight Champion.
Nunes addressed the rematch proposition in the post-fight press conference after UFC 259.