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UFC: Virna Jandiroba blasts Jair Bolsonaro government for ‘destroying and killing so many families’

  • No 13-ranked strawweight explains post-fight comments criticising Brazilian president after career-best display against Japan’s Kanako Murata
  • ‘Right now we’re at a point where we have half a million deaths in Brazil due to Covid – and that’s heartbreaking,’ Jandiroba says

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Virna Jandiroba punches Kanako Murata in their strawweight bout at UFC Vegas 29. Photo: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
After beating rising Japanese strawweight contender Kanako Murata, a dangerously improved Virna Jandiroba took the microphone at UFC Vegas 29 last month.
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Closing out her post-fight chat with Michael Bisping following a first career TKO victory, the Serrinha, Bahia native exclaimed “viva o sus, fora naro” – a phrase that encapsulates a larger fight than the one she had just been through in the Octagon.

“In Brazil, we‘re living a very delicate moment right now,” Jandiroba told SCMP. MMA. “The pandemic has shown the fragilities of government which from the beginning has shown to be racist and homophobic. Right now we’re at a point where we have half a million deaths due to Covid – and that’s heartbreaking.”

Last weekend, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice authorised a criminal investigation into President Jair Bolsonaro’s response to allegations of potential corruption involving a vaccine deal, with demonstrators in more than 40 cities demanding his impeachment, or greater access to Covid-19 vaccines. Bolsonaro has been accused by some Brazilian media of being sceptical about the coronavirus, with vaccination rates slow, but he continues to defend his position.

“The Sus is a united public health care in Brazil which gives public health care to all Brazilians and which is suffering boycotts from many people of the government,” Jandiroba added. “So I wanted to defend the Sus because it has such an important role right now in Brazil in vaccinating the population. I wanted to give my statement against [Briazilian President Jair] Bolsonaro who has been giving a government which has been destroying and killing so many families.”

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