UFC News: Megan Anderson angered by current situation of featherweight division, slams TUF fighters
What's the story?
UFC women's featherweight contender, Megan Anderson, is seemingly upset with the contestants from the 28th season of the UFC's Ultimate Fighter television series. Anderson is scheduled to fight fellow featherweight Cat Zigano on the preliminary card of the UFC's last and final event this year, UFC 232, set to take place at The Forum, in Inglewood, California, on December 29th, 2018.
In case you didn't know..
Megan Anderson is an Australian mixed martial artist and the former women's featherweight champion from MMA promotion, Invicta FC. She made her professional MMA debut against Zoie Shreiweis, a fight that she ended up losing via majority decision at the end of three rounds.
Anderson was on a four-fight win streak with Invicta FC, with her latest contest in the organisation coming against Charmaine Tweet, in a winning cause, for the interim Invicta FC featherweight championship.
Megan Anderson was initially scheduled to face Cris Cyborg at UFC 214, in what would have been her debut for the company. This fight, however, did not make it to the Octagon after Anderson pulled out, just two days before the event, quoting 'personal issues' as the reason for her absence.
Anderson then went on to make her debut against Holly Holm at UFC 225, a fight that she lost via unanimous decision after the full quota of three-five minute rounds.
The heart of the matter
During a recent interview with news outlet MMA Fighting, Megan Anderson was seen slamming upcoming women featherweights for not paying homage to the UFC's featherweight division. Anderson went on to say that the future of the women's featherweight division seems to be on the brink of extinction, considering the current state of affairs with The Ultimate Fighter contestants.
“It’s just one of those things that just f****** pisses me off,” Anderson said. “I don’t know. If you want to be in the UFC at 135 pounds, just f****** come out and say it. Don’t play this bullshit about, ‘Oh, I’ll fight at 145 if they want me.’ No, let’s be honest. You don’t want to fight at 145. That’s why instead of calling and campaigning for fights at 145 pounds, you’re now calling out people at 135 pounds. Like, if you really wanted to fight at that weight division, you’d be asking to fight at that weight division. But you’re not. So, let’s be real here. You don’t actually want to be in that weight division. So the whole point of The Ultimate Fighter for the 145-pound division was f****** s***. Because none of you want to be there in that weight division. You just want to go down and thought it was an easy way in (to the UFC).”
The future of the women's featherweight division seems to be an area of concern among fellow featherweights according to Anderson. Contenders such as Cyborg and herself would especially find it hard to cut weight and fit into the bantamweight division, taking their comparatively broader build into consideration.
What's next?
Megan Anderson, in her confession, does not entirely blame the UFC as she believes that featherweights in the division need to be able to market themselves for fights that they sign up for. But, with that being said, the UFC is yet to sign contestants from the 28th season of The Ultimate Fighter series, making the situation at hand seem murky and confusing.
What would you consider as a formidable solution to this up and rising problem with the women's featherweight division? Leave us with your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below, and visit Sportskeeda's MMA page for more!