If Amanda Nunes moves up to featherweight, the Brazilian wants to fight the current champion, not Cris Cyborg.
Amanda Nunes made her feelings perfectly clear after dusting Ronda Rousey at UFC 207: She wants to become the first female two-division champion in UFC history.
Nunes, who defended her bantamweight title against former champ ‘Rowdy’ last year, already holds a TKO win over current women’s featherweight champ Germaine de Randamie and would like to challenge her for the belt.
Despite de Randamie being ranked No. 1, however, many feel Cristiane Justino, better known as Cris Cyborg, is the best featherweight in the world. The Brazilian knockout artist has steamrolled through the competition, finishing all of her last seven fights via KO or TKO.
Nunes, though, told reporters at a recent media scrum in Century City (h/t Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting) that she has no interest in fighting the former Strikeforce women’s featherweight kingpin.
Her main priority, she says, is fighting for another UFC title.
“I’m interested in fighting the girl who has the belt now, de Randamie,” Nunes said. “Because I’d rather beat her. If UFC wanted to give me the opportunity to go up now, yes I would have taken it. Later is another thing.”
“I want to see Cyborg with this belt. I’m not interested in fighting her. I’m not interested in fighting her. I’m interested in fighting the girl who has the belt now. After my next fight, we’ll see what happened.”
‘The Lioness’ says she would have to make several changes to her training camp to prepare for a juggernaut like Cyborg, citing the the difference in size and weight.
“I’d have to do a lot of things to fight Cyborg. Cyborg is way heavier, way bigger than me. I’d have to change all my training style to fight Cyborg. This is another thing I’d have to go over with my coaches.”
Nunes is currently preparing to fight Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 213, but the 28-year-old said she is also open to dropping to 125 lbs after she defends her title.
“After my fight, things can happen. I might go down as well to 125 and try it first in the gym to see how it goes. We’ll see. After this fight, anything can happen. Because I cleaned out the division already. I beat all the tops in this division before I got the belt. When I got the belt, I beat the best one. After the next fight for sure I’m gonna do something else. Try to do something else, go down, go up. We’ll see.”
UFC 213, which features Nunes vs. Shevchenko in the co-main event, is set to take place on July 8 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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