Amanda Nunes wants Cris Cyborg bout in December: We need time ‘to make this huge’

Amanda Nunes still longs for that super fight.

Although the UFC women’s bantamweight champion challenged to a September bout by featherweight titleholder, Cris Cyborg, she was forced to turn it down due to an injury in her right foot. However, as ‘The Lioness’ explained during her appearance on ‘Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show’, she would still like to take on her fellow Brazilian at the end of this year.

If fact, Nunes believes UFC 232 in December would be the perfect date for it, as there would be enough time to build up the event.

“This is the fight that makes sense right, for all of us,” Nunes said. “For me, for her, for the UFC. They offered me (the fight) in September, but I have an injury, you know? I’m still recovering from my last fight. If she wants Amanda Nunes at 100%, she has to give me time. Why can’t she give me this time? If we fight now, we won’t have time to promote the fight. We need some time to make people excited, to make this huge.”

Amanda Nunes defended the UFC women’s bantamweight belt for the third time in a row in May, when she TKO’d Raquel Pennington in the fifth round of a rather one-sided bout. The win extended her win streak to seven victories in a row. Cyborg is coming off a first-round TKO of Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 222, and says that Nunes could represent the final fight of her UFC career.