Following an assault of Angela Magana last month at the UFC Athlete Retreat which led to a citation for misdemeanor battery by Las Vegas Police, UFC featherweight Cris “Cyborg” Justino has lost one of her sponsors. In a statement released on their website, clothing line GRRRL have stated that they’re dropping the fighter in response to the incident. The news did not sit well with Cyborg, who immediately fired back on Twitter, claiming the company owed her money.
Among GRRRL’s sponsored fighters are UFC athletes Holly Holm and Rose Namajunas. GRRRL’s statement reads as follows:
In response to criticism of GRRRL in respect of our recent dealings with Cris Cyborg, we consider it is necessary to present the background to what SHOULD have remained a private matter in respect of our commercial sponsorship of Cris.
A little over a month ago we entered into a 12 month sponsorship agreement with Cris, to cover a personal appearance at our GRRRL:Live event in Las Vegas combined with an ongoing 12 month commitment through Cris’s social media channels.
Unfortunately, within a matter of hours of appearing and speaking at our event, Cris was involved in “battery” of another fighter on the street outside a UFC retreat. Cris’s conduct in this regard has broadly been condemned by the fight industry and the organization by whom she is contracted as a fighter.
As a company with representation and brand ambassadors amongst girls as young as 6, we cannot publically condone this behaviour especially as the behaviour is directly in conflict with the messages Cris shared at the event, one of our speakers on cyber bullying and our company message to promote female harmony and unity.
This conduct has the potential to diminish the tireless work by our amazing network of women throughout the world to support female harmony and unity.
As a consequence of these matters, it is with regret that our sponsorship of Cris has come to an end.
We wish Cris well with her continued professional career. And every success in the future.
We are unable to comment any further in respect of this matter as it is now being handled by our legal team.
In response, Cyborg has argued that the company is simply trying to get out of paying her appearance fee. On her official Twitter, she stated
I spoke at this seminar and people paid to see me @KortneyOlson @GrrrlClothing agreed to pay me to speak but after event there's no payment pic.twitter.com/05BiOlBtYg
— #UFC214 #LetsGoChamp (@criscyborg) June 9, 2017
She also accused the company of hosting her meet and greet at a less than reputable location.
The meet and greet was at a swingers hotel and after weeks of advertising me for a speaking engagement they sold tixs and I did they dnt pay
— #UFC214 #LetsGoChamp (@criscyborg) June 9, 2017
All this is yet another distraction for the real pressing question of the moment: exactly who will Cris Cyborg be fighting at UFC 214? The featherweight is currently without an opponent for the July event, though she is expected to fight on the card, which takes place July 29 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
