Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino is facing Tonya Evinger for the vacant UFC Women’s Featherweight Title in the co-main event of UFC 214.
The reason that the title is vacant is due to the fact that the UFC stripped Germaine De Randamie of the gold for refusing to defend the title against Cyborg. The former champion’s reasoning for not facing Cyborg was due to the Brazilian’s history with steroids and other PED’s.
However, the former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion in Miesha Tate understands both Cyborg’s and De Randamie’s point of view in this whole mess. Tate, when speaking on The MMA Hour, says that De Randamie would’ve had nothing to lose if she took the fight against Cyborg.
“I mean, what do you really have to lose when you fight someone like Cyborg, of her stature?” Tate asked. “If you beat Cyborg, you’re on another level of respect. And if you lose, it’s like, well so has everybody. So, my opinion of it is, as a fighter, just from a fighter standpoint I think it would be an awesome thing to be able to fight Cyborg.”
As far as Cyborg’s past history with steroids and other PED’s go, the former champion also understands why De Randamie would be a little wary when the opportunity to face her came up.
“I do respect and understand what Germaine is saying. And I don’t think she’s scared of Cyborg. She’s a fighter. She’s been kickboxing forever. She’s one of the baddest women on the planet. [De Randamie’s] point she’s trying to make is, she doesn’t believe it’s fair and that, I cannot disagree. I don’t disagree with what she’s saying,” says Tate.
UFC 214 takes place on Saturday, July 29 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California with Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
