Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino News

Justin Golightly - March 1, 2018

The combat sports game is chaotic, sometimes you have to roll with punches outside of the cage just as much as the punches inside of it. After the main and co-main events got switched and transplanted, Cris Cyborg stepped up to defend her UFC women’s featherweight title against former Invicta FC bantamweight champion Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 222 this weekend. She was a highlight today at media day a brought a super special guest with her to open workouts: A masked man revealed to be none other than BJ Penn himself. A few shots of @CrisCyborg grappling mystery man BJ Penn at the #UFC222 Open Workouts. 📸: @allelbows pic.twitter.com/gfZVWicCoh

Drake Riggs - February 28, 2018

Invicta FC has lost two consecutive bantamweight champions to the UFC. And they will both have left to fight for the UFC featherweight crown against Cris Cyborg(who happens to be a former Invicta champ herself). First, it was the dominant, Tonya Evinger who finally made her UFC debut at UFC 214 as she fought for the vacant 145-pound title. Cyborg would end up walking away with the title then go on to make her first title defense against Holly Holm at UFC 219 just roughly three months ago.

Drake Riggs - February 27, 2018

It’s right back to work at UFC 222 this Saturday for the reigning featherweight queen, Cris Cyborg. Cyborg last fought and defended her title on the year-end card of 2017 at UFC 219 when she defeated former UFC bantamweight champion, Holly Holm. This quick turn around wasn’t the plan, but Cyborg wasn’t going to turn down the UFC in their time of need as she explained to The Sports Journal:

Justin Golightly - February 13, 2018

With everyone looking forward to the three superfights that the UFC has in mind for this year, everyone was slightly disappointed to hear that Cris Cyborg was going to be defending her UFC women’s featherweight title against former Invicta FC bantamweight champon Yana Kunitskaya. It turns out it is still just a speed bump in the way of her anticipated fight with Amanda Nunes. That is, if they both win. Either way, the decision to step in and help prop up UFC 222 was strategic. Cyborg is hoping that if she scratches the UFC’s back, they’ll scratch hers. “[Stepping in to fight Yana Kunitskaya] was a great opportunity to keep the momentum from the win against Holly [Holm] and get me back into the octagon quickly so ‘Cyborg Nation’ can keep growing. I’m going to have to start putting a mouth guard in my purse if this fight pace continues the rest of 2018, though. […] When [the UFC] called saying they needed a new main event, we saw this as an opportunity to prove to everyone that Cris Cyborg can be a company girl and that I’m willing to step up when the promotion needs it. I am hoping this will continue to build my relationship within the promotion and lead to the type of marketing and exposure I have been asking for.”

Justin Golightly - February 7, 2018

After UFC 222 was put in major jeopardy with Max Holloway’s leg injury, the UFC was scrambling 100mph in order to save the card. They were trying to get TJ Dillashaw to defend his title against Cody Garbrandt, while keeping Frankie Edgar on the card as the co-main in a non-title fight. Even Nate Diaz was in the running to jump on. It looks like now the UFC are trying to throw Cris Cyborg on the card to defend her women’s UFC featherweight title against former Invicta FC bantamweight champ Yana Kunitskaya. There are deals in place to have Cris Cyborg vs. Yana Kunitskaya for the women’s 145 belt headline UFC 222 on 3/3 w/ Frankie Edgar vs. Brian Ortega as the co-main, per multiple sources. Not 100% finalized but that’s the current direction and it’s looking promising at the moment.

Drake Riggs - February 2, 2018

“I’ll tell ya what, maybe it’s because I just watched that movie ‘Battle of the Sexes’… I was thinki’ today, what do you do with CM Punk? There’s not a man on the roster that does not walk through him in under a minute. So what do you do with him? You’re obviously gonna give him another fight… Is he a ratings draw…? I don’t think so. There was that mystery like, ‘god, how would he do?’ then we were like, ‘oh my god that was awful’. It was so bad you don’t want to see him fight again.

Justin Golightly - January 31, 2018

Somewhere someone is looking at numbers skyrocket. The engagements and impressions are out of control. Suddenly, a dull UFC week is sparked with an army of 14,000 fire emoji. This is what happens when the UFC announces a fight the magnitude of Daniel Cormier moving up to face Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title. A tweet like that holds its own gravitational pull. It drags in thousands who release their own satellites out to orbit around the news. People message friends, they send out hyperlinks and quote RTs. The drop of the information is like an event in and of itself. However, not every match-up is like this. Most entire cards aren’t like this. Nowadays, it takes an adrenaline shot to remind fans that MMA is still exciting as hell. Is this the way the UFC stays alive?  Before the ginormous sale, the UFC ramped up their fight cards like the climax of a Michael Bay movie. This all culminated in their pay-per-view draw poster boy fighting Eddie Alvarez in unprecedented champion versus champion main event at UFC 205. Since then however, things have dwindled. Conor McGregor is gone along with other marquee names like Ronda Rousey and Jon Jones.

Drake Riggs - January 30, 2018

If there’s one female super fight that had fans intrigued more than any possible other, it was always Featherweight world champion, Cris Cyborg vs Bantamweight world champion, Ronda Rousey. The time has clearly passed for such a fight…as Cyborg continues to reign supreme in the UFC and Rousey has lost her title and now officially crossed over into the professional wrestling world. With such news comes reactions, and Rousey’s old rival shared her thoughts on the former Bantamweight queen’s new ventures when speaking to MMAFighting recently: “I believe that she will be happy in WWE, and it’s completely different from the reality of MMA. For an example, wins and losses are decided before the shows.

Justin Golightly - January 24, 2018

It looks like the first superfight of 2018 has finally gotten close to becoming official. Dana White said it was the fight to make. Amanda Nunes has wanted it for some time in her quest to become a two-weight champion. Cris Cyborg has said she agreed with her management for it to happen. So, it seems like UFC featherweight champion will attempt to defend her belt against UFC bantamweight title holder Amanda Nunes. Reluctant to accept at first, Cyborg recently has gone on record saying she thinks Nunes needs this fight for money and to increase her fame. “Amanda [Nunes] fought Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate with big pay-per-view numbers. The reality though is that the UFC promoted her opponents more than her, and after having to fight on her own brand she struggled to sell 100,000 pay-per-views against [Valentina] Shevchenko. Amanda knows my name sells pay-per-views and without it her brand isn’t strong enough to sell enough pay-per-views to reach her bonus incentives in her contract.”

Drake Riggs - January 22, 2018

It appears that the UFC Featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg has changed her mind! Originally, she was stating that for her next fight she would like to defend against a fighter that has been competing and winning at Featherweight lately. She has now said that she is ready for the UFC Bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes next rather than waiting until after the title defense against a Featherweight that she was asking for. I have agreed with my management to fight @Amanda_Leoa #ufc226 July 7th in Las Vegas during international fight week. I will let her finalize her side of the bout now. pic.twitter.com/w5YIYYRGV5

Drake Riggs - January 19, 2018

Was there a Ronda Rousey before Ronda Rousey? Sort of, yeah. A female star that everyone knew about and had interest in? Originally you could give that crown to Gina Carano. That is before it was violently stolen by Cris Cyborg at Strikeforce: Carano vs Cyborg in 2009. Cyborg fought eight times and went 7-0 before finally making her UFC debut at UFC 198 in May of 2016. This was three years after female fighters were first introduced to the UFC at UFC 157 when Rousey defended her title against Liz Carmouche. Ever since that time, Rousey vs Cyborg was the female super fight to make and one that everyone had an opinion on. It was essentially the women’s version of Georges St-Pierre vs Anderson Silva. A fight that so many wanted and came so close to happening but never did and likely never will.

Tom Taylor - January 18, 2018

Over the last few weeks, there has been ample discussion surrounding a potential superfight between UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. UFC President Dana White has assured this is the fight he wants next for both women.

Drake Riggs - January 11, 2018

The back and forth between team Cyborg and team Nunes continues… Recently, one of UFC Bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes’ coaches at American Top Team, Conan Silveira commented his thoughts on the potential super fight that has fans buzzing. “People want to see it, I think they have the best opportunity to leave their marks on history. I believe for the weight division, Amanda is going to be extremely well-prepared,” he said. “She’s not going to have to make the weight. She’s probably going to be strong in that division. I do believe the compensation (for) the strength that comes from Cyborg definitely will be the tools that Amanda has on her side. I think it’s the perfect fight. It’s a perfect match. It’s a champions fight – it’s something we don’t see happen often.

Drake Riggs - January 8, 2018

Nothing is set in stone regarding the UFC’s current Featherweight division. Matter of fact, there has yet to be a UFC Featherweight fight between two fighters that haven’t fought below 140 lbs. There have been three Featherweight fights so far in the UFC. Starting things off with UFC 208, where the inaugural champion was crowned when Germaine De Randamie defeated Holly Holm via unanimous decision. Both fighters were previously Bantamweight contenders before that fight. The second fight was for the vacant title after De Randamie gave up the title making it Cris Cyborg vs Tonya Evinger. Evinger was coming over as the Invicta FC Bantamweight champion, filling in for Invicta’s Featherweight champion, Megan Anderson. And most recently, Cyborg defended her title against Holly Holm at UFC 219. In an effort to break this trend, the champion, Cyborg wants to fight a fighter with a recent win at 145 lbs for her next title defense. Then she will be open to a super fight with the Bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes who is clamoring for the fight as are the fans. Cyborg had this to say on Twitter in response to Nunes’ coach at American Top Team, Conan Silveira when he said he thinks Nunes vs Cyborg will “1000% happen”.

Drake Riggs - January 8, 2018

UFC 219 left us with two big questions. Those being, “who’s next for Cris Cyborg?” and “who’s next for Khabib Nurmagomedov?”. These are both questions we have yet to get answers too. But…we appear to be getting closer to the answer for Cyborg more than we are for Khabib. The reigning UFC Featherweight champion, Cyborg has called for a fight with top 3 Featherweight, Megan Anderson since her win over Holly Holm at UFC 219. That fight, however, isn’t possible just yet as Anderson has yet to be cleared to compete. The second name that was brought up was current Bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes who is all for the fight. She isn’t the only one though, UFC president, Dana White also voiced that that’s the fight he would like to make next and today, American Top Team head coach and coach of Nunes gave his take on the fight when he spoke with MMAJunkie: “People want to see it, I think they have the best opportunity to leave their marks on history. I believe for the weight division, Amanda is going to be extremely well-prepared,” he said. “She’s not going to have to make the weight. She’s probably going to be strong in that division. I do believe the compensation (for) the strength that comes from Cyborg definitely will be the tools that Amanda has on her side. I think it’s the perfect fight. It’s a perfect match. It’s a champions fight – it’s something we don’t see happen often.

Tom Taylor - January 7, 2018

Be ready! Forget WuTang…#CyborgNation is nothing to mess with! @parilloboxing heeeeey! ========================== Antes da guerra!!!!! Já faz um tempo que é assim.. mas só dessa vez filmaram! Heyy só pra checar se o espírito não fugiu kkkk! A post shared by CRIS CYBORG 🇧🇷★ #ufc219 (@criscyborg) on Jan 6, 2018 at 7:46pm PST

Drake Riggs - January 5, 2018

Just a few years ago, the biggest possible fight among the women would have obviously been the former UFC Bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey vs at the time, the Invicta FC Featherweight champion and former Strikeforce Featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg. It was always an issue of Cyborg making 135 lbs…since that was initially the only division for the women before the UFC introduced the 115 lb Strawweight division. Then by the time that Cyborg had come to the UFC, Rousey had been dethroned in devastating fashion and the opportunity for a big female super fight died. That is perhaps until now. After Cyborg’s dominant decision victory over the woman that dethroned Rousey, Holly Holm at UFC 219, everyone has begun to ponder what’s next for the longtime ruler of 145. The obvious choice is fellow top three Featherweight worldwide, the Australian, Megan Anderson. Anderson was the most recent Invicta FC Featherweight champion prior to her signing to the UFC to fight Cyborg for the vacant title at UFC 214 before being forced out for undisclosed reasons. It’s not like Anderson is unqualified, but she is also the only other Featherweight on the UFC roster.

Justin Golightly - January 4, 2018

Cris Cyborg came, she saw, she conquered. She took on her biggest test to date and still proved she’s the most dominant women’s champion in the world of MMA today. After winning a decision over former UFC bantamweight champion Holly Holm, everyone is wondering what will be next. Cyborg has said she wants true featherweight fighter Megan Anderson, but the UFC seems to have other plans. Despite saying she doesn’t want to fight another Brazilian, Dana White says Amanda Nunes challenging Cyborg is the fight to make. “First of all, Amanda Nunes wants to fight her. Amanda Nunes wants to fight [Cris] Cyborg,” White said. “That is the fight to make, and that is the fight I will make. Yeah, That’s the fight. That’s the fight. Amanda Nunes is a big, strong, powerful puncher. I think she matches up very well with Cyborg too, and I think that’s a fun fight. And that’s the fight to make.”