Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino News

Justin Golightly - December 15, 2017

It’s a huge fight. A career-defining bout with big stakes. The title is on the line and Holly Holm is the underdog against one of, if not the best women fighter on the planet. Does this all sound familiar? Back at UFC 193, Holm hit the ‘kick heard ’round the world’ on Rousey and earned the biggest MMA victory of her life in front of a stunned audience. Those comparisons aren’t lost on Coach Mike Winkeljohn either. He recently broke down his thoughts on the fight and predicts Holm stops Cyborg to shock the world once again. “Oh, absolutely [there are comparisons to the fight with Ronda Rousey]. You know what, behind the scenes when we fought Ronda we were pretty confident that we had the proper game plan to beat Ronda. Everybody thought we were crazy, everyone thought Holly was crazy when she first fought Christy Martin back in the early days in boxing cause Christy Martin knocked everyone out, and Holly made that look easy, and she had what I call that ‘Christy Martin’ moment where Christy tried to throw a punch at her, Holly slipped under and then Christy almost went through the ropes. Guess what? Ronda did the same thing, and it’s gonna happen in the Cris Cyborg fight, she’s gonna have that same moment.”

Justin Golightly - December 7, 2017

At the end of the month, one of the biggest women’s MMA fights of all-time will go down at UFC 219. Holly Holm will step into the Octagon to challenge Cris Cyborg for her women’s UFC featherweight title. A huge fight like this with such high stakes hearkens back to when Holm fought Ronda Rousey and finished her to become the women’s bantamweight champion in Australia. That feeling can’t help but conjure up images for Tito Ortiz of the fight that never was — Cris Cyborg versus Ronda Rousey —  and he thinks the fans deserve to have that happen. “I think the fans deserve [the fight between Cris Cyborg and Ronda Rousey]. Cris deserves it, and for sure I think Ronda deserves it after everything she’s said about Cris. If you’re ever gonna’ talk about somebody, at least step in the cage and try to prove yourself. But she’s afraid to do it, I understand. There’s many women who are afraid to fight Cris, and I’d just say the proof is in the pudding of how dangerous Cris truly is. If that fight’s in front of her it shows that UFC are able to once again put a great, huge fight together.”

Justin Golightly - December 6, 2017

After many, many months of hype, negotiations and a back-and-forth suspense on if the fight would be on UFC 219, Cris Cyborg will finally defend her women’s UFC featherweight title against Holly Holm. When the division was first created for the dominant Brazilian fighter, it’s the match-up we all thought would be for the belt and now it’s happening. Coach Jason Parillo vows a knockout victory for Cyborg, which may be aided by some “help” that the champ has received from some Brazilian fighters in New Mexico. However, Cyborg claims she didn’t need the advice and honorably refused it. “Many Brazilians are excited about this fight. Both times I fought in Brazil at 63.5kg, the fans wanted me to face Holly [Holm], and since this fight was announced I was surprised by the number of Brazilian fighters who offered me support. Believe it or not, I had some Brazilians who trained in New Mexico who came to share things about their training. Although I thanked them for wanting to see me succeed and continue representing Brazil as champion, I did not let what they said influenced my training. In the end, I do not care what kind of training she’s doing for her confidence, wrestling or boxing. My team is preparing me for the best version of Holly Holm.” 

Tom Taylor - December 5, 2017

In preparation for her UFC 219 title defense against former UFC bantamweight champ Holly Holm, UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg has been working on her hands with pro boxing legend Cecilia Braekhus.

Justin Golightly - November 24, 2017

Back when Holly Holm was pitted against Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, Rousey seemed like an unstoppable juggernaut and was heavily favored against the former boxing champion. At UFC 219, the odds will be no different. No one can deny the dominance of Cris Cyborg, especially now that she’s in her proper weight class. With a lack of contenders, it looks like Cyborg could be UFC women’s featherweight champion for a long time. That is, unless Holm has something to say about it. Miesha Tate recently weighed-in on the match-up and thinks Holm has all the righ tools to get the job done. “Of anybody that I can think to fight Cyborg to right now, that has the best chance, I honestly, truly believe that it’s Holly [Holm]. The reason I say that is, if Cyborg cannot get ahold of Holly, if she recklessly chases her down — similar to how Ronda [Rousey] did, not using the correct angles — if she follows her like a missile, which she does in every fight I’ve ever seen before. That’s how she hunts girls down because she can. With Holly, that’s not a good idea. She can cut through those angles. She’s an amazing counter striker and if she lands that head kick, I think she can put anybody away. So stylistically, this makes for a really, really interesting fight.”

Tom Taylor - November 19, 2017

After months of back and forth and discussion, the first title defense of UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg Justino is finally set. The champ will defend her title against former women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm at UFC 219 this December 30. While this fight is still some time away, the early betting odds for it have now been released via veteran oddsmaker Joey Odessa. These odds have the champ Cyborg identified as a -400 betting favorite, while Holm has been pegged as a +300 underdog.

Adam Conklin - November 17, 2017

Its been a good week for UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino. First, she books the first defense of her title against former women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm in what is one of the most sought after matchup in MMA. Next, Cyborg confirms to the media via her website that a new deal has been reached with the UFC that will keep her in the Octagon at least the next year. Cyborg has made the most of her long-awaited UFC career. She stands undefeated in the Octagon with three straight wins, all of which coming by knockout in no later than the third round. Her most recent history came over former Invicta FC bantamweight champ Tonya Evinger who made her UFC debute opposite one of the most feared fighters in MMA.

Justin Golightly - November 15, 2017

Ever since her victory over Tonya Evinger at UFC 214 to become the new UFC featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg has been on a warpath to try and defend her title against Holly Holm. There was a whole social media campaign for a fight that seemed like the only option, at least with Invicta FC featherweight champ Megan Anderson’s UFC status still up in the air. The match-up went from being a no-brainer on UFC 219 to dead in the water. Don’t lose hope yet though, Cyborg’s coach Jason Parillo recently just revealed that she will be fighting soon. “Well, I mean I happen to be sitting here with [Cyborg] right now at lunch and her manager. Something is going to be happening. It’s not my job to open my mouth about it, but there’s definitely something exciting in the works, for sure. Cris Cyborg’s a champion. Gun to my head, we’ll see her fight very soon.” — Jason Parillo speaking to the Extra Rounds Podcast.  

Russell Ess - October 9, 2017

Many are wondering when we will see Cris Cyborg make her way back to the Octagon to defend the UFC women’s featherweight title. Cyborg won the women’s 145-pound belt in July after the promotion stripped the title from the inaugural champion, Germaine de Randamie, after she refused to fight Cyborg who was the number one contender at the time. Cyborg met former Invicta bantamweight champion Tonya Evinger at UFC 214 after de Randamie was stripped of the title where Cyborg was able to stop Evinger in the third round by TKO to win the vacant title.

Justin Golightly - October 3, 2017

The UFC women’s featherweight champ, and arguably the most dominant female fighter on the planet, still doesn’t have a fight. After a long social media campaign to try and finally get the title defense booked against Holly Holm, Cris Cyborg and their team have called off negotiations and canceled their upcoming meeting to solidify a deal. According to Cyborg, the UFC offered her even less money than her fight against Tonya Evinger when she captured the title. My meeting with the @UFC for next week has been canceled. They want to pay me less to fight @HollyHolm than I made to fight Tonya Evinger

Justin Golightly - September 21, 2017

There was a lot of talk when Ronda Rousey’s coach voiced his opinion that he still wants the long-awaited fight with Cris Cyborg. It’s a fight that Cyborg herself is no longer interested in, and one her coach scolded Edmond Tarverdyan for suggesting. The latest to speak out on this is Rousey’s greatest rival, Miesha Tate. Not only does she think it’s ‘asinine’ for Tarverdyan to put the idea out there, but gives credit to Cyborg for shooting the fight down before the idea even gets legs. “I’m gonna give Cyborg a round of applause, because she wouldn’t look more like a bully than if she took that fight with Ronda. That would be ridiculous. It’s just nonsense to even think about that. I cannot believe that Edmond [Tarverdyan] would suggest something so asinine. I think Edmond just wants another payday so he can try to pay off his bankruptcy issues, because Jiminy Christmas. Poor Ronda. I’m not her biggest fan, but I wouldn’t even want to see that fight. I’m not her biggest fan, but I wouldn’t want to see her get slaughtered by Cyborg at this point in her career, either. It’s not appealing.”

Justin Golightly - September 21, 2017

After the last two fights, it seemed like Ronda Rousey was done with the sport of MMA, at least for the time being. If anything, it seemed like she was inching closer to a wrestling in the WWE. However, her longtime coach Edmond Tarverdyan, recently just put it out in the news that he would still like for her to finally have the fight with Cris Cyborg. Jason Parillo, Cyborg’s coach, doesn’t think that’s a good idea at all. “As far as putting Cris Cyborg’s name in [Edmond Tarverdyan’s] mouth, that’s not a good idea. And god bless him, who else are you gonna call out? You should call out probably the girl, one of the last two girls [Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes] that he fought. That would probably be a better call-out. It would be more of an even match-up because the girl that he keeps calling out in Cris Cyborg, I believe would be – in an old school, back when Mark Coleman was doing it back in the day, I see Cris Cybrog beating all three of those girls in the same night, and I’m being serious when I say that. I believe that, and it’s the type of heart that Cris Cyborg has.”

Tom Taylor - September 19, 2017

On yesterday’s episode of The MMA Hour, Edmond Tarverdyan, head coach to former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, weighed in his star pupil’s future. While he admitted he isn’t sure if Rousey will ever fight again, he did suggest that he’d like to see her fight one more time, against one fighter in particular: Cris “Cyborg” Justino. “That’s the one,” Tarverdyan said of this fight. “I want that fight. When I trained Ronda, I know Ronda could beat Cyborg. I know that. Cyborg is too slow.”

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg is now a licensed boxer in the state of California. The Brazilian juggernaut received her license on Wednesday, per a report from Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com. The timing of Cyborg’s being granted a boxing license is quite convenient, as her current UFC contract will wrap up in October. Because she’s a UFC champion, however, the UFC will have an exclusive one-year window to negotiate a new contract with her. If the two parties don’t agree to a new deal Cyborg should, in theory, be allowed to go full-steam ahead on her long-discussed boxing career.

Justin Golightly - August 23, 2017

One thing has been on Cris Cyborg’s mind since finally winning the UFC women’s featherweight title: Holly Holm. Although, she doesn’t have too much choice. There aren’t any other girls in the division now that Germaine de Randamie has been stripped and left back to bantamweight. She’s done everything short of directly demanding a fight with Holm at the end of this year, even promising she will ‘find her’ no matter what. Finally, Holm has gone on record that she is willing to fight Cyborg. …Sort of. “This is me publicly saying, ‘Yes, I am open to the fight at 145 [pounds],'” Holm said. “[But] I’m not going to take a fight at 135 pounds one month, and then the next month it’s, ‘Oh hey, do you want to fight Cyborg at 145?’ This is me going outside of my weight class and that’s OK. I’m willing to take the fight. I just want to have a full training camp. My contract is at 135 pounds. So, if they came with a fight like that [at 145lbs], I would say, ‘Let’s negotiate.’ I truly feel that is one of, if not the biggest, female fights they can promote. I’m not in it for the priority of money, but I value myself. […] This is a huge fight and I’m sure everybody around it, the promotion, is going to make money. So, I would expect more money.”

Justin Golightly - August 15, 2017

After the hard reset of the UFC’s women’s featherweight division, things still don’t seem like there will be smooth sailing moving forward. Technically, there is only one fighter even in the division, that women being the champion Cris Cyborg. Germaine de Randamie gave up her title and ran all the way back to bantamweight, and it seems like Holly Holm did the same. That won’t stop Cyborg from going after Holm to pursue a real, 145lb contender to fight her in a title defense. Cyborg makes a point to MMA Fighting that no matter how much Holm runs, she will find her. “She’s never KOed one girl. Her last punch with Bethe Correia. Three rounds, maybe six punches. They had to stop the fight and say, ‘Hey girls, I don’t know what the plan is but let’s start fighting.’ I don’t think she’s very aggressive. I don’t think she’s going to be really dangerous. I think it would be an exciting fight because I like to fight and I’m going to find her. She’s going to run in the ring, but I’ll find her. She’s already run three times. I was supposed to fight her in Curitiba, I agreed to fight her 140 and she did not want to fight. Then, I said fight in Brazil, and she said she’d fight me at 138, not 140. And after this fight, when Megan Anderson pulled out of the fight, I said I’d like to fight Holly, she said no. […] Three time she run from this fight.”

Chris Taylor - August 8, 2017

Cris Cyborg captured the UFC’s vacant women’s featherweight title at last month’s UFC 214 event in Anaheim, defeating a very game Tonya Evinger via third-round TKO. The most feared women’s fighter on the planet now has her eyes set on former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm.

Russell Ess - August 3, 2017

It has been said time and time again that in the sport of mixed martial arts, you experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. UFC 214 displayed just that, especially in the main event light heavyweight title fight between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones. Cormier went into the title fight rematch as the champion while Jones came in the challenger after coming off a year suspension after testing positive for banned substances.