Featherweight champion Bellator Cris Cyborg claims UFC President Dana White has blocked her grappling match with Miesha Tate, who is preparing to return to the octagon. The Brazilian said that she was supposed to meet with Tate under the organizations of the Submission Underground, but White opposed this fight.
“I’m not surprised,” Cris Cyborg said on The Catch Up with Cris Cyborg & James Lynch. “He doesn’t want this to happen. She wants to have a couple fights more, she says it’s not the end of the line, now she can have the opportunity to do this fight in the future. She said she’d really like to do [it] but you know the story. Dana wants nothing to do with Cyborg. But I believe in the future maybe the fans would like to watch. “
Cyborg and Tate aren’t the only victims of the UFC preventing outside activities as of late. Just this past week, Georges St-Pierre revealed how he was stopped from competing in a possible boxing match with Oscar De La Hoya.
“The fighters don’t have forever,” Cris Cyborg said. “We have to use every moment of opportunity that we have. Okay, your manager and you decide one thing is good for a career, [the promoter] is supposed to let it go, let them do it. There’s no help with the fighter. They’re gonna make extra money, extra publicity, extra matches, it’s going to be better. But I don’t know, I’m glad to be free of this. ”