Bellator president Scott Coker will attempt to sign Cris Cyborg following her falling out with the UFC.

UFC president Dana White recently said the promotion is out of the Cyborg business White claimed that no matter what Cyborg says, she didn’t want a rematch with Amanda Nunes. The UFC boss even claimed that Cyborg tried to avoid a bout with Nunes back when she was the 145-pound champion.

“I tried to make the rematch. Cyborg can say whatever she wants. I have this all documented. We have this all documented. This is a real company, and we document everything that we have. She wanted to fight Cindy Dandois or Pam Sorensen, and I told Cyborg, we don’t make those fights here. That’s not what we’re doing.

“You’re going to fight Amanda Nunes, and it was a huge back-and-forth that went on forever, and then finally she agreed. And she ended up fighting Amanda Nunes and we saw how that fight ended.”


Nunes defeated Cyborg back in Dec. 2018 to become a UFC “champ-champ.” The narrative pushed ahead of Cyborg’s UFC 240 bout with Felicia Spencer was that she wanted to take easier fights. Cyborg, who was on the last fight on her UFC deal, vehemently denied this. Cyborg earned a unanimous decision victory over Spencer.

Coker briefly spoke to MMAJunkie. He reacted to the news of the UFC not matching anyone else’s offer for Cyborg.

“That’s great news. I’ll be calling (Cyborg’s manager) Audie (Attar) in the next five minutes.”

Coker described White’s claim that Cyborg is afraid of Nunes as “ridiculous.”

“I don’t even know what to say about that,” he said. “Cyborg isn’t afraid of anybody.”

Coker and Cyborg have had a working relationship in the past. When Coker was running the show in Strikeforce, Cyborg was the promotion’s women’s featherweight champion. In the biggest women’s combat sports bout at that time, Cyborg defeated Gina Carano via TKO.