Bellator champ Julia Budd sends message to Cris Cyborg

Cris Cyborg has parted ways with the UFC, and the most likely setting for the next chapter of her storied career seems to be Bellator MMA.

If Cyborg does migrate to Bellator, she will be on collision course with reigning Bellator featherweight champion Julia Budd.

Speaking to MMA Fighting, Budd sent a message to Cyborg, encouraging her to make the move to Bellator — the promotion she believes is home to the world’s greatest female featherweights.

“Come to Bellator,” Budd said. “We’ve got the best 145-pounders in the world. I think everyone has been talking about this for a long time. I don’t know what she wants to do for her career but I definitely think it makes sense.

“She’s been talking about PFL, she’s been talking about all these other organizations, ONE [Championship], Rizin, whatever, but it makes no sense. I know what I would do if I was in her shoes.”

While Budd clearly welcomes a fight with Cris Cyborg, she says her current goal is to fight the ferocious Gabi Garcia in the Rizin ring at year’s end. She believes Cyborg could conceivably fight another Bellator contender in the meantime.

“I’m really hoping that I get to fight in Rizin on New Year’s Eve against Gabi Garcia, that’s kind of my dream matchup in the moment. But I’m down for anything,” Budd said. “That would be awesome [to face Garcia and Cyborg back-to-back]. I don’t know if Cris wants to fight first against one of the other girls in the division but I’m into that fight any time.”

Do you think we’ll see Julia Budd and Cris Cyborg will battle for Bellator gold in the near future?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 8/5/2019.