Cat Zingano Calls UFC Fighters Retreat “Awkward”

Cat Zingano was just one of a plethora of fighters who recently attended the UFC fighters retreat in Las Vegas.

If the fighter can describe the whole weekend in one word, it would be "awkward."

“I could see the effort, right, the effort in trying to get us to bond,” she told MMA Fighting. “In one way, it was super-awkward getting everybody to be in one place at the same time. The one thing that I worried about was the content of the seminar. It was hard to watch because I was like, do these people believe what they’re saying, and they just don’t know? Or are they aware, and it’s a show? I want to say that every single one of us at least, I don’t know how many times that weekend, were looking at each other rolling our eyes. But also all of us in the fear of, we don’t even get to do anything about this. Part of me felt like there was a highlight video being created, Ultimate Fighter style, where they’re saying the stuff they’re saying on stage and then they edit in us laughing and smiling.”

A lot happened over that weekend, including a pair of scuffles between Cyborg and Angela Magana, as well as Jeremy Stephens and Mike Perry.

Zingano also wishes the UFC would have used the money they have better, instead of wasting it on the retreat.

“If this retreat was meant to tell us about all the newness that is happening, not only the millions of dollars that they probably spent on this event, and the carpets at the event that will be used once, and wall fixture that will be used once, and how much money went into bringing Snoop in and Michael Strahan in, and Kobe Bryant — what did these guys get paid to come do this?” she said. “When we’re sitting here broke, or struggling. Or the people that are still on top in the world are wondering what they’re going to do next in their career. It was really hard for me personally seeing how they’re throwing out all these companies making all this money, and we should be honored to be considered on the same level of popularity of these companies.”

It has been almost a year since Zingano was last seen in the Octagon, but she has been campaigning for a fight with Cyborg.