Dana White is leaving the door open for a potential Cyborg return to the UFC.
The polarizing UFC executive recently confirmed he would release the former champion from her contract. And when other promotions inevitably came knocking, he wouldn’t match any of their offers.
White’s announcement came on the heels of a week full of discord. Cyborg’s contract had expired following her UFC 240 win over Felicia Spencer. The two sides staunchly disagreed about Cyborg’s rumored rematch with current women’s featherweight champ Amanda Nunes. “The Lioness” handed Cyborg her first UFC loss at last December’s UFC 232.
Perhaps the proverbial last straw came when Cyborg’s production team badly edited White’s meeting with Cyborg backstage at UFC 240. The ensuing outcry led to Cyborg admitting that and apologizing on social media. So their time together was done.
Yet White kept kicking what appeared to be a dead horse as he’s known to do. He went off on Cyborg after his ‘Contender Series’ in Las Vegas last night. White claimed working with Cyborg was a ‘nightmare’ because she was never happy. And while she once demanded an apology from White, it was her who was forced to say she was sorry. He said that what her team was about the ‘dirtiest’ thing anyone could do:
“She’s unhappy, we’re unhappy, she lies and does that thing. See ya later. Have a nice life. I don’t think there’s any peace between me and Cyborg. Whether you like me or you don’t like me, whatever your opinion is it doesn’t matter. What she did was dirty. It was dirty what she did with the video and all this other stuff in it. Meanwhile, she’s out here saying she better get an apology from me?
“Yeah. I got an apology from her. Because what she did was one of the dirtiest things. It had to kill her to apologize to me. Kill her to do it. But what she did is one of the dirtiest things you can do to somebody. That’s why she apologized.”
Harsh words from White, albeit not all that surprising. Despite all the apparent bad blood between the UFC and Cyborg, White wouldn’t close the door on a reunion completely. He said Cyborg simply needs to call him today (via Bloody Elbow):
“She just needs to call me tomorrow.”
Interesting; very interesting, in fact. The plot also thickened when Cyborg tweeted her management would meet with the UFC today. She later deleted the tweet. This feud had the looks of one of the messiest endings in MMA history. But White’s brief words about that call suggest there is a glimmer of hope for Cyborg to return to the UFC, no matter how small it may be.
That’s what happens in the fight game when there’s a potentially huge match-up to be made. Nunes vs. Cyborg II is the biggest women’s fight in the entire sports of mixed martial arts right now.
Will Cyborg and the UFC actually change course and reunite?
