Cyborg loses sponsorship after Magana incident

The ripples from Cris Cyborg's punch of Angela Magana are just starting to be felt.

Apparel company GRRRL has issued a statement saying it will no longer be sponsoring the 31-year-old Cyborg after the UFC fighter was involved in a physical altercation at a fighter retreat in Las Vegas on May 21. Cyborg struck Magana during a confrontation that stemmed from insults Magana directed at Cyborg over social media.

Response has been mixed to Cyborg's reaction, though several fighters have backed her up for standing up to what some perceive as cyber-bullying on Magana's part. However, UFC president Dana White condemned Cyborg's outburst and it appears at least one of her sponsors is following suit.

Below is a portion of the statement from the GRRRL blog:

A little over a month ago we entered into a 12 month sponsorship agreement with Cris, to cover a personal appearance at our GRRRL:Live event in Las Vegas combined with an ongoing 12 month commitment through Cris's social media channels.

Unfortunately, within a matter of hours of appearing and speaking at our event, Cris was involved in "battery" of another fighter on the street outside a UFC retreat. Cris's conduct in this regard has broadly been condemned by the fight industry and the organization by whom she is contracted as a fighter.

As a company with representation and brand ambassadors amongst girls as young as 6, we cannot publically condone this behaviour especially as the behaviour is directly in conflict with the messages Cris shared at the event, one of our speakers on cyber bullying and our company message to promote female harmony and unity.

This conduct has the potential to diminish the tireless work by our amazing network of women throughout the world to support female harmony and unity.

As a consequence of these matters, it is with regret that our sponsorship of Cris has come to an end.

Magana has stated her intention to sue Cyborg over the incident, saying she expects to pursue felony assault charges against the UFC featherweight.

Cyborg addressed the matter via Twitter, accusing the company of using the Magana incident as an excuse not to pay her for a recent appearance:

- With h/t to MMA Fighting