10 UFC Fighters Dana White Fell Out Of Love With

3. Cris Cyborg

Dana White Bj Penn Cross
Jeff Chiu/AP

For years, Cris Cyborg was one of the UFC’s white whales. In particular, Dana White was desperate to sign the Strikeforce and Invicta FC favourite – with that long-discussed Cyborg vs. Rousey fight a contest that could print money for the UFC.

By the time Cyborg did eventually join the UFC in 2016, the timing was off for that dream bout as Ronda Rousey left the promotion six months after the Brazilian’s arrival. But still, there was plenty of viable opponents for Cyborg to test herself against.

It all started so well for Dana White and his signing of Cris Cyborg, with the fighter getting wins over Leslie Smith, Lina Lansberg, Tonya Evinger, Holly Holm, and Yana Kunitskaya. Then, White seemed to fall out of love with Cyborg once she was KO’d by Amanda Nunes at UFC 232.

A unanimous decision win came against Felicia Spencer at UFC 240, but that was followed by Dana deciding that the bloom was off the rose. Making the call that he didn’t want to re-sign Cyborg to a new contract, he made the bold move of letting the fighter out of her UFC contract and encouraged her to fight elsewhere.

For her part, Cyborg cited bullying from Dana, while White claimed that the 34-year-old was only interested in easy fights and that he’s “no longer in the Cyborg business” as he tore up her UFC contract.

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