Though they share an Alliance connection, Cat Zingano ‘wasn’t surprised’ Angela Magana got socked by ‘Cyborg’

Cat Zingano made the decision to move west from her home state of Colorado to train at Alliance in Southern California, and it is there that she has found a new home. Yet though she has fit right in with the team down in San Diego, the ghosts of Alliance’s past haunted her a little bit during the UFC Fighter Retreat last weekend.

In fact, Angela Magana’s presence among her current teammates made Zingano do a retreat of her own in Las Vegas when they found themselves in close proximity.

“That girl, all weekend, was trying to piss somebody off,” Zingano said of Magana. “I had to leave the night I got there the room I was in, because I was around my teammates and she was on Alliance before I ever got there. I had never met her. Now we’re all in the same spot, same place, and they all know her really well but she kept taking shots at me — like digging at me, saying shit, to intentionally passive aggressively hurt my feelings.”

Zingano, who partook in the three-day festivities organized by the UFC’s new ownership group WME-IMG, has been actively volunteering for a fight with Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino. Though she is in the throes of a two-fight losing streak, she is the last fighter to have defeated current women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes.

Yet during what was supposed to be a bonding weekend for the UFC roster with its new ownership group and sponsors got heated when “Cyborg” punched Magana. That incident, according to Zingano, didn’t come without context, far beyond the provoking that Magana did on social media towards Justino.

Echoing what other fighters such as Max Holloway have said, Zingano saw Magana as an instigator throughout the weekend. It was why she distanced herself from the TUF 20 cast member, before she herself got into an incident.

“Eventually I was like, dude, all these people [from Alliance] know her and love her, and if I snap on her right now, I’m going to be the bad guy,” she said. “I would rather not spend a minute with my team and just avoid making shit awkward, than one more second around this girl. I’ll just go hang out with my old team. Everyone knows I get along with everyone, and nothing would be weird.

“It was just, anything to get away from her. So when I heard Cris did that, I was actually with the Alliance team, and when they were all like, dude Angela just got punched in the face by ‘Cyborg,’ I was not surprised.”

Nor was Zingano surprised to see Magana out and about in the aftermath.

“The crazy part too is that she was partying after,” she said. “She was so hurt she has a mild concussion, or whatever, her tooth was loose — now all of a sudden Cris knocked her tooth out and she’s sitting there saying she has this concussion, acute brain injury, whatever — but she was drinking, playing beer pong and dancing.

“It’s like, go to your room and fake it. Don’t fake it in the middle of everything.”