Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino News

Justin Golightly - March 15, 2018

The superfight has been put on hold, Cris Cyborg eradicated her last foe, and Amanda Nunes has a title defense at UFC 224. Both women are down to meet up after their business is finished, but now Cyborg thinks Nunes isn’t actually going to end up showing her face in the Octagon and has just been asking for the fight to promote herself. If Nunes doesn’t fight Cyborg at UFC 226, then she says that the UFC bantamweight champ will have to get to the back of the line of featherweight. We’d tell you who that would be behind, but the division still doesn’t exist on the UFC website. “I’m starting to think that Amanda Nunes just started using my name to negotiate a new deal with the UFC. Like many other girls, she’s using my name to create her brand. If Amanda is not ready to fight at UFC 226 in Las Vegas, I have to tell my team that I want to fight whoever is ready. I explained to my manager that if Amanda wins in Rio and refuses to fight in July, I will not invest my time trying to carry out this fight.”

Tom Taylor - March 7, 2018

Having demolished short-notice challenger Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 222 last weekend, UFC women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg now has her crosshairs set on bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. And while this potential showdown is considered the toughest test of Cyborg’s career by many fans, her boxing coach Jason Parillo believes it’s actually a perfect stylistic matchup. “The person who is going to beat Cris Cyborg is Cris Cyborg, or [she retires],” Parillo told MMAJunkie this week. “Time catches up to all of us. But for the most part, Cris Cyborg, I don’t see it. Amanda Nunes, she doesn’t have a – she has a good style. She’s a good fighter with the way she took out Ronda [Rousey], but she’s got a style that’s absolutely perfect for Cris. Cris is going to fight her fight and go out there and do what she does and get it done.”

Tom Taylor - March 5, 2018

After watching UFC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg maul Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 222 last weekend, Chael Sonnen believes he’s identified some glaring holes in her game. Sonnen broke it down in the latest episode of Beyond the Fight, and implored Cyborg’s potential future opponents to listen.

Chris Taylor - March 4, 2018

Dana White and Cris Cyborg squash the beef following UFC 222 UFC President Dana White and current women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg have not always had the best relationship and that is putting things lightly.

Tom Taylor - March 4, 2018

Though UFC 222 was originally expected to be headlined by a men’s featherweight title fight between champ Max Holloway and challenger Frankie Edgar, a late Holloway injury meant that the card was ultimately topped by a women’s featherweight title fight between champ Cris Cyborg and challenger Yana Kunitskaya. While Yana Kunitskaya deserves props for taking a fight with the monstrous Cyborg on short notice – and for landing a takedown early in the fight – this fight went as expected. After returning to her feet, Cyborg began to stalk her opponent like a hungry carnivore. From there, it was just a matter of time. The champ was feasting on her latest kill before the first round was over.

Chris Taylor - March 3, 2018

UFC 222 Results: Cris Cyborg stops Yana Kunitskaya A women’s featherweight title fight between current champion Cris Cyborg and UFC newcomer Yana Kunitskaya served as the main event of tonight’s UFC 222 fight card in Las Vegas.

Drake Riggs - March 2, 2018

A masked invader broke into the UFC 222 open workouts and attacked the featherweight champ, Cris Cyborg the other day! Who would do such a thing?! Obviously the one and only ‘Prodigy’ BJ Penn. It was a fun surprise for MMA fans and after all was said and done, Penn took time to talk about the champ, Cyborg with MMAJunkie:

Justin Golightly - March 2, 2018

Cris Cyborg is only a day away from defending her UFC women’s featherweight title against former Invicta FC bantamweight champion Yana Kunitskaya. Another woman who held that belt is Tony Evinger, who knows both women in the main event of UFC 222 very well. Not only has she fought Cyborg, but she fought and beat Kunitskaya back in their old home and now she’s not giving the former opponent much hope to beat Cyborg. “I definitely think Cyborg is going to take this pretty easy. It’s not even a close fight. Yana [Kunitskaya] isn’t close to that level or even prepared. She’s just taking it for the money. I heard someone try to compare her to Holly Holm because they train together, but big whoop. It’s not like over the last six months this girl has gotten so amazing that she is going to go in and win the 145-pound belt. That’s ridiculous.”

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.”

Drake Riggs - February 9, 2018

It is official. UFC featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg will be making a relatively quick turn around after her last title defense in December to now defend against the Invicta FC bantamweight champion, Yana Kunitskaya. The fight will be Yana’s first in the UFC and her first at 145-pounds since 2012. The oddsmakers don’t see this one being close. Cyborg has opened as a 10-1 favorite on Bovado while Yana is the 6-1 underdog.

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 30, 2018

Aside from Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic’s ultra mega fight being booked, there is at least a couple more superfights lingering around that haven’t been finalized. One of them is UFC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg defending against UFC bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. Dana White said he’d put it together, Nunes campaigned for it, Cyborg has said she’s agreed to it but nothing has happened yet. This has led to Nunes to publicly wonder what the hold up is with the match-up. “I wanted that fight [with Cyborg]. She didn’t even think about that when I decided to do it. I texted Dana White, and I said I wanted that fight. I’m ready to go up. I wanted something big for my career and I decided the next step would be Cyborg. But the negotiations have been so slow. I don’t know what is wrong, but I didn’t even see my contract yet. Nothing is official. [I didn’t want a] catchweight at all. I’m going up to 145. I don’t want to make this so long – already it’s long. […] I’ve fought there before. My first fight in Strikeforce at 145 was against Julia Budd. Things worked very well for me. I’m a little bit over losing weight as well. I have to get on the diet and go down. I want to take a little break from that and go up. I think this is the best choice for me right now and they don’t have nobody in my division.”

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.