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Cris Cyborg now says she'll fight Amanda Nunes in UFC champ vs. champ fight in July

Dana White wants it. Amanda Nunes wants it. And now, does Cris Cyborg want it, too?

Cyborg (18-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC), the UFC’s women’s featherweight champion, late Monday night posted on her social media accounts that she has agreed to a showdown with women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes (15-4 MMA, 8-1 UFC) for this summer at the UFC’s International Fight Week pay-per-view in Las Vegas.

While the event hasn’t been formally announced yet by the UFC with a date or event number, Cyborg said it will be UFC 226, and presumably will take place at T-Mobile Arena on July 7.

“I have agreed to fight Amanda Nunes Leoa July 7th in Las Vegas as part of #UFC226 and #InternationalFightWeek,” Cyborg posted on Facebook, along with a Photoshopped image of her facing off with Nunes – albeit a fairly well done one. “I am now waiting for my manager to work with the UFC on a bout agreement so we can make #CyborgVNunes #TheSuperFight official. #CyborgNation us versus them!”

Cyborg never was super interested in the matchup when it first was bandied about. She even was quick to shoot it down when brought up. But Nunes (15-4 MMA, 8-1 UFC) took to Twitter to defend the fight, which ATT head coach Conan Silveira said “was 1,000 percent going to happen.”

Cyborg’s hesitation likely stems from a desire to fight actual featherweights, not bantamweights moving up to challenge her. Nunes has fought at featherweight, though it was many years ago. She also wasn’t keen on fighting a fellow Brazilian. She wanted to fight either Invicta FC champ Megan Anderson or Pam Sorenson.

“If Amanda Nunes truly wants an opportunity at the (145-pound) belt, a win against any ranked contender in that division would help establish her back in a weight class she left before fighting me,” Cyborg wrote on criscyborg.com earlier this month.

White, earlier this month in St. Louis after UFC Fight Night 124, put his stamp of approval on getting it to happen.

“That’s the fight that I want to do,” White said. “That’s the fight that I want, so we’re working on it. Amanda wants to fight her, and we’re finally in a position where we can give Cyborg big fights – big fights with big-name people and money fights.”

Now we’ll wait to see how quickly this one can get finalized.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

[sigallery id=”VmdxYzNRQCwFjN3cFenG9g” title=”Nunes def. Shevchenko” type=”sigallery”]

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