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UFC president Dana White reportedly blocked a grappling match between Cris Cyborg and Miesha Tate.
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate was a mainstay in the promotion before her retirement in November 2016. After her retirement, Tate went on to work as the Vice President of One Championship but didn’t return to professional MMA competition for many years.
Earlier this year, Miesha Tate announced that she’ll be making a comeback to the sport of MMA. Tate has confirmed that her next fight will be in the UFC – a women’s bantamweight bout against Marion Reneau at UFC Fight Night 191 (July 17th, 2021).
Miesha Tate reportedly signed a new six-fight contract with the UFC and has asserted that she intends to regain the UFC women’s bantamweight title. In an episode of MMA on SiriusXM, Tate shed light upon a grappling match against Cyborg that didn’t come to fruition.
Miesha Tate said –
“It’s not all said and done. I would love to do this still in the future. But I’ll be honest with you, Cris, when I talked with Dana White about it, he said, ‘No’. He wouldn’t let me. And I know you guys have had your things or whatever, but he just had it. He just didn’t like it. And I’m still under UFC contract. But, you know, if I finish my fights and I have a little more freedom to do as I please, then I would still like to do that.”
Miesha Tate suggested that she’s still interested in competing in the much-discussed grappling match against Cris Cyborg, albeit after she has competed in all the fights on her UFC contract. Cyborg responded by indicating that she too is still interested in the grappling match against Tate.
On that note, Tate continued –
“It’s not dead yet. It’s not dead. There is hope.” (*H/T Sportskeeda for the transcription)
Furthermore, as noted in the tweets embedded above, Cris Cyborg has taken to her official Twitter account to criticize Dana White for blocking Miesha Tate from competing in a grappling match against her.
Miesha Tate looks to reclaim UFC gold, whereas Cris Cyborg aims to defend her Bellator gold
Miesha Tate has emphasized that her objective is to win UFC gold. ‘Cupcake’ aims to reclaim the UFC women’s bantamweight title which is currently held by the fighter who beat her for it, Amanda Nunes.
On the contrary, Cris Cyborg – a former UFC women’s featherweight champion – will look to defend her Bellator women’s featherweight title against Leslie Smith at Bellator 259 (May 21st, 2021). Cyborg already holds a win over Smith, whom she beat via first-round TKO in the UFC.
Dana White and Cris Cyborg are known for jibing at each other for several years now. Cyborg has time and again accused White of underpaying the UFC fighters and demoting fighters rather than promoting them.
