According to a Feb. 17 report from MMA Junkie, UFC President Dana White revealed that the promotion had a closer relationship with Invicta FC than what many suspected.
White explained that the UFC wished to sign Cris "Cyborg" Santos, the former Strikeforce women's featherweight champion, to a new deal with the promotion – and then pay her bills to fight for Invicta Fighting Championship until the UFC could figure out where she fit into the title picture.
"We were going to sign her to a contract and then we were going to have her fight in Invicta – which means we'd pay all the bills for her to fight in Invicta," White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) after the post-event news conference for Saturday's UFC on FUEL TV 7 card in London. "She'd be under a UFC contract with all the perks and benefits of being a UFC fighter, and would fight in Invicta. So instead of doing that, they chose to not do that – and fight in Invicta. If you can make logic out of that whole f---ing situation, you're a better man than I."
"We don't have a 145-pound division, so we're going back and forth with these guys in the deal," White said. "So I called Shannon Knapp, who owns Invicta, and said, 'Listen, if I do this deal with Cyborg, can you give her fights over there? I'll pay the bills, and you put on some fights over there till I can figure out how this whole thing is going to go down?' She said 'absolutely, no problem, we'd love to do it.' The next thing I know, Tito wants out of the contract and they sign with her."
The one thing White's comments revealed is just how closely the UFC was working with Invicta FC to help build the women's MMA game.
Never in a million years would you see White do the same for other MMA promotions, offering to foot the bill for a fighter to compete in Bellator or the World Series of Fighting.
No word yet on how Santos' signing to Invicta FC will affect his relationship with Knapp.
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