Cris Cyborg frustrated by ‘ridiculous’ changes caused by UFC 232 relocation

When the UFC decided to move the entire UFC 232 fight card from Las Vegas to Los Angeles on just six days notice, it caused all kinds of problems for the fighters for the card. That includes UFC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg, who is set to defend her title against bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes in the card’s co-main event.

Cyborg, who was licensed to fight in Nevada, recently had to do additional pre-fight medicals in order to get a last-minute license to fight in California. She feels that having to do these pre-fight medicals in the midst of an already chaotic fight week is ridiculous, and wasn’t afraid to say so in the second instalment of her fantastic UFC 232 fight week video blog.

“I was supposed to fight in Nevada and they changed it to California,” Cyborg said of the changes she’s had to deal with as the result of this week’s controversial UFC 232 relocation (transcript via MMA Fighting). “I don’t have a license for California, now I’m doing the other [business] I have to do to make a fight here. This is ridiculous.”

“First time,” she added, explaining that she’s never had to do these medical exams during fight week before. “And I still have to do other ones and that I don’t know if we’re gonna do. But I have to do it for this fight license.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t the only frustration Cris Cyborg has had to deal with, either. Like many other fighters on the UFC 232 bill, she found out about the card’s relocation through the media, rather than from the UFC directly. She didn’t appreciate that.

“This is crazy,” Cyborg said in the first instalment of her video blog. “They’re supposed to contact everybody. We’re partners. We’re partners. We can’t partner together … and they don’t contact you before. But I was in touch with my manager and he didn’t know, too. He was buying gifts for his family. Nobody knows. Just really don’t like. How can you call media and not call your fighters? For you to prepare yourself before and handle things before. How long do they know this?”

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 12/27/2018.