"Cyborg" 1/8 Favourite To Defeat Megan Anderson For Vacant Featherweight Title

Published on June 24th, 2017 2:48 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel
MMA Fight preview - Cyborg vs. Anderson. The co-main event of UFC 214: Cormier vs Jones 2 will see Cris Cyborg square off against Megan Anderson for the vacant UFC Women's Featherweight title.

The Women's Featherweight title picture has been confusing for the last few months. Germaine de Randamie defeated Holly Holm to become the first ever Women's Featherweight title holder. GDR then refused to fight Cyborg, citing her past positive tests for steroids.

The UFC elected to strip GDR of the title (before she even made one defence) and announced that newly signed Megan Anderson would be squaring off against Cris Cyborg for the vacant title.

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The UFC essentially created the Women's Featherweight division so that Cyborg would have a place to fight. Cyborg is unable to cut down to 135 pounds, so the UFC created the Women's Featherweight division to give her a home. Say what you will about Cyborg, but she is easily one of the most popular female MMA fighters in the world.

The UFC went out and signed former Invicta Featherweight title holder Megan Anderson to a contract, and Anderson will be getting a shot at the vacant UFC Featherweight title.

Anderson is obviously in tough against Cyborg, and the odds certainly reflect that:

Cris Cyborg, 1/8
Megan Anderson, 5/1

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As far as challenges go, Megan Anderson is probably the best that the UFC could do right now for "Cyborg". In Anderson, Cyborg gets a legitimate Featherweight fighter who is a former title holder.

The UFC is apparently working on a #1 contender bout between Holly Holm and Cat Zingano, with the winner getting the next Featherweight title shot.

The UFC has quite a bit of work to do to build the Women's Featherweight division, though they are off to a good start with Cyborg, Anderson, Holm and Zingano, if that indeed is their plan.

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