Cris "Cyborg" Justino's run with the UFC appears to be over. In a lengthy interview on the company's YouTube channel, UFC president Dana White announced he will be releasing Cyborg from her contract and will not match any offers she receives.
"I'm going to release her from her contract and I will not match any offers," White declared
. "She is free and clear to go to Bellator [MMA] or any of these other organizations and fight these easy fights she wants. Done. Done deal. I will literally, today, have my lawyer draft a letter to her team that she is free and clear to go wherever she wants. We're out of the Cyborg business."
White spent 10 minutes of the nearly 17-minute interview discussing the Cyborg situation, including addressing Justino's recent comments that the UFC president had bullied her in the past. Justino appeared on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show earlier this week and
demanded White apologize publicly for "bullying" her in the past and damaging her brand. She also complained about White's offer for a contract extension.
In his interview on Friday, White attempted to clarify past comments he made about Justino, including one in which he compared her to Wanderlei Silva — a male fighter — in a dress. White disputed Justino's perspective, claiming she had taken it out of context.
"Ronda [Rousey] said, 'That woman has taken so many drugs, she's not a woman anymore. She's an it,'" White explained.
"Once she said that, I was doing a media scrum and was asked about Ronda's comments. I said to the media, 'Did you see her at the MMA awards? Did you not think she was on steroids?' ... I was saying she looked like Wanderlei Silva in a dress, what I meant was she had the same physique as Wanderlei Silva. And one month later, Wanderlei Silva evades a drug test and gets a three-year suspension from the sport."
In any case, White deciding to release Cyborg from the UFC ends any rematch possibility with Amanda Nunes, who
defeated Cyborg in just 51 seconds to claim the UFC Featherweight belt from her and become the first-ever female double champ (she holds the bantamweight belt as well).
While Cyborg claims she has been vying for a rematch with Nunes, White continues to say that she doesn't actually want to fight her. Cyborg
recently released a video from behind-the-scenes of UFC 240 in which she confronted White and told him to stop lying about the rematch.