Cris Cyborg jumped on the UFC 300 wagon asking for a rematch against former rival, Amanda Nunes. All in response to Dana White’s announcement of signing her correspondent rival, Kayla Harrison, who will face Holly Holm at the upcoming super event.
Dana White announced former PFL women’s lightweight champion, Kayla Harrison’s signing with a video posted on X. It contained brief highlights of her fights in the Professional Fighters League with White stating that she will make her UFC debut against former UFC women’s bantamweight title holder, Holly Holm at UFC 300.
Cris Cyborg, a former UFC women’s featherweight and current Bellator women’s featherweight champion in her own right, replied to White’s tweet. She proposed a rematch with Amanda Nunes at UFC 300.
Cris Cyborg’s UFC run
Cyborg made her way to world-leading MMA promotion by making a name for herself in various organizations. After stacking up a 4 – 1 record at the Brazilian regional MMA circuit she made her U.S. debut at EliteXC: Unfinished Business by stopping Shayna Baszler. The Brazilian fighter ran through all the opposition in both EliteXC and Strikeforce, grabbing the latter promotion’s women’s featherweight title in the process. However, she was stripped of the title after her defense against Hiroko Yamanaka due to testing positive for stanozolol. She continued her winning ways by grabbing Invicta FC’s featherweight title, which she later vacated.
In 2015 it was announced that Chris Cyborg signed with the UFC. She made her promotional debut by defeating Leslie Smith at UFC 198. Cyborg won then vacated UFC featherweight title by TKOing Tonya Evinger at UFC 214. Next, she defended the belt on two different occasions, including against Holly Holm, before losing it to Amanda Nunes at UFC 232. Nines not only served Cyborg her second and first KO loss in her career but also became a simultaneous two-division champion. Cyborg bounced back by defeating Felicia Spencer at UFC 240, but the promotion decided not to renew her contract or execute a three-month negotiation clause.
Cris Cyborg’s post-UFC career
Cyborg was quick to find a new employee in the form of Bellator, reigniting her relationship with Scott Coker. Once again she became the featherweight champion and is a current title holder. During that period she stated on multiple occasions that she was interested in both a rematch with Amanda Nunes outside of UFC or fighting Kayla Harrison on a fight card co-promoted by both Bellator and PFL. Interestingly enough, she issued her request to Dana White despite signing a new, multi-fight deal with Bellator in May 2023. However, there’s a possibility that her status could change after the promotion was purchased by PFL.
Amanda Nunes on her possible comeback
Amanda Nunes was in attendance for UFC 297, where she witnessed Raquel Pennington beating Mayra Bueno for the vacated UFC women’s bantamweight title. A belt, that Nunes vacated when she announced her retirement from active competition in her post-fight interview at UFC 289.
In her interview with ESPN MMA’s Megan Olivi “The Lioness” stated that she’s enjoying the lifestyle of a retired athlete, which allows her to spend more time with her children and life partner, Nina Nunes. She also added that she’s still young, so she can’t rule out a potential return to MMA.
But I’m still healthy and powerful, smart, think like a champion. I still feel like a champion, so we’ll see.
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