Cris Cyborg discusses “the worst thing” after losing a fight

Cris Cyborg has only lost two times as a professional mixed martial artist. Her latest loss came at the hands of Amanda Nunes in 2018, when she was knocked out in 51 seconds.

In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Cyborg looked back on her devastating loss to Nunes. While she is reluctant to make excuses, she said the chaos surrounding her preparation for the fight caused her to act emotionally in the cage.

“I think that’s something wrong when there are no problems in my camp because I always have a problem in my camp and that motivates me,” Cyborg said. “I trained nine months for that fight and had so much stress around me. It’s not an excuse, but I acted emotionally in the fight. It’s not what I trained, I acted emotionally. … We never think we’re going to lose in the first round. You say ‘I’ll give my all, I’ll go until the end, and if they defeat me, I’m going until the end.’ That’s what we think.”

Cyborg then looked back on the hours and days that followed that loss to Nunes. Interestingly, she said one of the toughest moments occurred when she was showering post-fight, when she was without distractions and alone with her thoughts.

“The worst thing there is after you lose a fight is to take a shower,” Cyborg said. “You take a shower by yourself and that flash comes in your head all the time, and then you start to question (yourself). One side says something, the other side says something else. There’s a fight inside your head every time you take a shower. The week after that fight was a difficult moment.”

Today, Cris Cyborg is the Bellator women’s featherweight champ, while Amanda Nunes still holds that title in the UFC. The former is hoping they’ll have the opportunity to rematch in the future, perhaps as the result of co-promotion between the UFC and Bellator.

“It’s not a dream, it’s a goal in MMA, to do something different,” Cyborg said. “A super fight between the Bellator champion and the UFC champion, Amanda Nunes and I. I think it would help MMA a lot.”

What do you think of these comments from Cris Cyborg?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/28/2020.