Despite all the back and forth online, Cat Zingano said she was never offered a fight with Cris Cyborg. She has one request if she is able to defeat Pam Sorenson at Bellator and win a title shot.
” Independent testing for us both — [an] independent resource. Just making sure that there aren’t biases. There’s no person we know and just making certain everything is fair,” Zingano stated Wednesday in a media conference for Friday’s event.
Zingano made headlines in January by claiming Cyborg refused drug testing, prompting her to instead take the bout with Sorenson, a former Invicta featherweight champ who’s 1-1 in Bellator. Cyborg immediately denied Zingano’s claim and said the one-time UFC title challenger was making excuses to not fight.
At the moment, Bellator does not conduct independent drug testing, instead relying on state athletic commissions that regulate its events. To test its fighters, ABC President Mike Mazzulli is hired by the promotion while they are overseas. Bellator President Scott Coker didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on additional drug testing. Typically, promoters and fighters have looked to the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) for testing outside state requirements.
The picture Zingano painted on Wednesday as to why she didn’t fight Cyborg rather than Sorenson was more nuanced. But it also came down to a lack of a contract.
“I wasn’t offered that fight, for one,” she told MMA Fighting. “I know coming into Bellator, we talked about how that was going to be a fight that we had for sure. Also, I knew that all my fighting footage was taken by the UFC. They can’t advertise me, they can’t use my highlights or fight videos, and can’t talk about me. So they really wanted me to fight fights here and get tape, get reel, give me good matches against good 145-pound girls, and I’m relatively new to this weight class. So putting me in there and figuring it out, I wasn’t offered Cyborg.
” I did inform them at the start that there are things that we both want to do [it], in order to ensure it’s fair and safe. And with those guidelines, it just never came out. We talked about our fight online and she called me online. I was waiting online for her phone call .
Reaching out for comments, Cyborg once again asked Zingano if she would like to meet her.
“Sounds to me Cat Zingano does not want to fight”, she said in a message sent to MMA Fighting. “Hopefully she enjoys being on the YouTube prelims.”
The former UFC champion was placed under suspension for one year for testing positive for steroid. She received a retroactive, therapeutic-use exemption from the U.S Anti-Doping Agency for failing a drug screen during her UFC career.
Zingano has won a pair of Bellator fights since her defection to Bellator, and she’s moved on from Cyborg as an immediate concern.
“Fights are momentary,” she said. She said, “Every punch and every kick is instantaneous, each second, every moment, every breath…so I am focusing solely on this fight. I know that fight doesn’t even matter right now. That’s what I must do. Pam Sorenson is my focus and I am determined to come in and do what I have been trained to .”
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As for whether she’ll get a title shot next, she’s fighting with the assumption that Cyborg will be waiting.
“That is what I am assuming,” Zingano stated. “Pam is coming up and has done some great things so far with Bellator. Bellator has been a great partner to me so far. It would seem fair to assume that this fight .”
could have led to that.
