Germaine de Randamie Stripped of UFC Featherweight Women’s Title Belt

The UFC has stripped their current Women’s Featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie due to her refusal to fight mandatory number one challenger Christine “Cyborg” Justino.

The UFC released this statement earlier this morning on the matter.

“UFC has informed Germaine de Randamie and her management team that she is being removed as the women’s featherweight champion due to her unwillingness to fight the No. 1 ranked contender, Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino,” the UFC said on its website. Subsequently, top contender Justino will face newly signed Invicta FC featherweight champion Megan Anderson for the UFC women’s featherweight title in the co-main event of UFC 214: Cormier vs. Jones 2, July 29 in Anaheim, Calif.UFC maintains that any champion is expected to accept fights against the top contenders in their respective weight classes in order to maintain the integrity of the sport.”

Cris “Cyborg” Justino will meet Megan Anderson to lay claim to the UFC featherweight championship after Germaine de Randamie was stripped of the belt. This will now give Cyborg to capture the one belt that has always eluded her throughout her dominant career. She has held the Strikeforce and Invicta FC titles. Initially, the Featherweight division was created for her to face Holly Holm, but a number of issues derailed that. Those issue included health and an anti-doping violation charge, which led the UFC to match de Randamie against Holly Holm for the inaugural featherweight title instead.

Amazingly enough, de Randamie has recently declared that she would not put her belt on the line against Cyborg because she was a “proven cheater.” When in all irony, it was de Randamie who used late strikes after the bell several times in her match with Holm to win the title in the first place.

As for her opponent, Megan Anderson, she won the interim Invicta FC featherweight title early this year by defeating Charmaine Tweet. She was then promoted to champion when Cyborg relinquished the Invicta FC championship in March to intensify her pursuit of the UFC title. The irony in all of this is off the charts.

It will be interesting to see where we go next.