Cris Cyborg is arguably the most dominant fighter walking the planet and deserves a hell of a lot better than she got from her most recent opponent’s camp last weekend.
Fresh from her unanimous decision victory over Holly Holm in the main event of UFC 219 on Saturday night, Cyborg was forced to endure some absolutely unnecessary and wholly disgraceful abuse from Holm’s team’s official photographer.
Mark Aragon, who was credentialed for UFC 219 as a staff photographer for the Jackson-Winkeljohn team, took to Instagram after the UFC’s final card of 2017 to repeatedly refer to the UFC women’s featherweight champion as a man.
“This dude is tough as hell! That being said at the press conference he said Holly was the first one to make his nose bleed! You are my hero @hollyholm see you back in the gym,” Aragon wrote.
Cyborg rightly responded by claiming that it was “unacceptable” for an official representative of Jackson-Winkeljohn “to call me transgender following my fight.”
Donald Cerrone is one of the bigger names to represent the gym, which has been no stranger to controversy in the past due to questionable social media activity, and he quickly distanced himself from the remarks made by the photographer.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdbnJbphlxu/
The apologies from Aragon, as well as the gym itself, have been criticised because large chunks of both are dedicated to attempts at justifying his actions.
Aragon claims that he was riled by Cyborg’s celebration of her victory, which took her to 19–1 (1), and it was that anger which prompted him to write such awful comments about a champion, for whom jokes about her gender are disappointingly familiar.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bda6c4Un_Ht/?taken-by=ma2_media
A fighter revelling in victory after five rounds of war in no way justifies the kind of remarks that were levelled at Cyborg on Sunday.
The UFC should seriously consider reviewing the photographer’s credentials because to behave in such an inappropriate way to one of the organisation’s most talented assets is, at best, unprofessional and, at worst, disgusting.
