Cyborg Demands Apology From JacksonWink

The UFC women’s featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg made her first defense and scored her 19th consecutive victory on Saturday, earning a five-round unanimous decision over Holly Holm at UFC 219.

However, the champion wasn’t jubilant for long as a photographer who was at the event representing the JacksonWink gym (where Holm trains) posted a since-deleted Instagram message in which he used the words “dude”, “he”, and “his” to describe Cyborg. The use of male pronouns are in line with past comments made by several prominent figures ranging from Dana White to Joe Rogan,  who have compared Cyborg’s body to that of a male fighter.

On Monday, she took to Instagram herself to address the insult:

It is not acceptable for an official representative of @hollyholm @jacksonwink_mma to call me transgender following my Fight. Their official photographer was given a backstage credential to attend the @UFC and I expect an apology or their ability to get credentials for future UFC events to be affected by these actions. @ma2_media 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷 Não é aceitável que um representante oficial da @hollyholm @jacksonwink_mma me ligue transgênero na sequência da minha luta. Seu fotógrafo oficial recebeu uma credencial de bastidores para participar do @UFC e espero que uma desculpa ou sua capacidade de obter credenciais para futuros eventos do @ufc_brasil sejam afetadas por essas ações.

A post shared by CRIS CYBORG 🇧🇷★ #ufc219 (@criscyborg) on Jan 1, 2018 at 9:07am PST

“It is not acceptable for an official representative of (Holly Holm and JacksonWink MMA) to call me transgender following my fight,” Cyborg wrote, adding that she expects an apology from whoever wrote the post and that this person not be granted credentials by the UFC in the future.

The JacksonWink team has posted its side of the story on Facebook: