Former featherweight champion Cris Cyborg may have lost to Amanda Nunes at UFC 232 on Saturday night, but the star still believes she should have been given the chance to speak on the mic after their co-main event title superfight.
“They just kicked me out of the cage,” Cyborg said backstage after the event was over. “I think (it’s) very bad, very disrespectful, because I did a lot for the sport. I was supposed to say hello for my fans and talk to them. I think it’s not right. But OK, they did, (it’s) already done, I can go (to the) media and talk to my fans, say how I appreciate them, how them coming to the cage to watch my fight, all Cyborg Nation here to watch me. It’s OK, I just feel like I’m supposed to say something. Two Brazilian fighters, two champions. That’s it.”
The relationship between Cyborg and the UFC has always been somewhat strained and this latest snub likely won’t have done anything to help fix that, while Dana White also seemed to be lukewarm to the idea that she may now get an immediate rematch with Nunes.
On the bright side, at the post-fight presser Cyborg did finally have a chance to say what she had wanted to tell the fans in the Octagon after the fight.
“I wanna say thank you for all my fans (for coming to California),” Cyborg said. “I always try being the champion in the hearts of everybody, give them hope, because people (who) follow me knows how hard it was for me and I never showed them I’m quitting, I’m weak, I never showed that. But I’m a human being, I have my mistakes, I have a lot of things like everybody here, and I showed them it doesn’t matter you gonna fall, you gonna stand up on your feet and get in there. You just have to believe and have faith.
“This is the thing I want to show to all my fans. When you do that, you are the champion. When you stand up on your feet after you fall, you are the champion. And this is what I tried to show all my fans because I know everybody has hard times and I feel sad because everybody is sad because I lost today. For sure I have something to learn today. I don’t know what now, but I know God is gonna show me. I don’t want nobody sad because I’m not gonna be sad.”
