Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino News

Justin Golightly - December 29, 2017

No weight issues for top contender @TeamKhabib, as he registers 155.5 pounds on the scale 💪. Watch #UFC219 official weigh ins LIVE: https://t.co/2iQmYbS437 pic.twitter.com/59GjoFZHrp — MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) December 29, 2017

Justin Golightly - December 28, 2017

In a couple of days, Holly Holm will step into the Octagon to try and dethrone the dominant Cris Cyborg and take her featherweight title. Having beat Ronda Rousey at the top of her career, a win over Cyborg will put her as the best women’s fighter of all time and the first ever women’s two-division champion. Add that to her boxing accolades and it’s hard to argue for anyone else. However, there is one other fighter who has given Rousey a loss: Current UFC bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes. Who is also ready to cement her place as the best female fighter on the planet by beating whoever comes out on top this Saturday. “We have the utmost respect for [Cris] Cyborg and [Holly] Holm, it’d be a great fight with either one, but we believe Amanda [Nunes] could be champion in both divisions, because she has all the tools for that. She is an extremely well rounded fighter and has been showing that she does deserve to face the winner. That’s our main focus for 2018. Of course we know she has no way to defend two belts, but that decision would be taken after her fight against the Cyborg vs. Holm winner.” — American Top Team coach Conan Silveira speaking to Portal do Vale Tudo.

Tom Taylor - December 28, 2017

On Saturday night, in the main event of the stacked UFC 219, UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg will attempt to defend her strap against former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm. At present, the featherweight champ is undergoing her cut down to the fight’s 145-pound limit. While she has endured some brutal cuts in the past, she assured BJPenn.com’s Tom Taylor that her weight cut is right on track for this contest.

Justin Golightly - December 27, 2017

We are just a few days away from the biggest women’s MMA fight since Holly Holm first took the bantamweight title away from Ronda Rousey back in 2015. Holm will take on Cris Cyborg in a huge main event with the featherweight title on the line. The comparisons to the approaching moment has not been lost on the Jackson Wink fighter or her coaches. A win here not only would make Holly Holm a two-division UFC champion, but also the best female fighter in the world. Even if there was no belt on the line, that’s what means more to her. “I want to do things in this world and in my life that haven’t been done before. If there’s no female that’s done it before, guess what? I want to do it. That’s something that’s always driven me. I’m a driven person. That’s something that really drives me. On the flip side of that coin, I would still want to beat [Cris Cyborg] just as badly even if it wasn’t for the belt. Yes, to be a champion in two divisions is huge but just to win against one of the most highly respected fighters, that’s where the real pride is.”

Justin Golightly - December 22, 2017

There’s a serious chance for Holly Holm to shock the world once again at UFC 219. She’s confident she can do it, and her coaches believe she can do it as well. If she manages to take out Cris Cyborg, she’ll have beaten two of the number one female fighters on Earth. Knowing Cyborg’s track record and how long she has been dominant, if she does beat her, then Holly Holm is graciously willing to offer her an immediate rematch, just like she was going to do with Ronda Rousey. “Yes [I would give Cris Cyborg an immediate rematch if I beat her] and with Ronda [Rousey] I was open to a rematch as well, it’s just they didn’t know how long or when she would come back or if she would want to. And that’s when I said well I just don’t want to wait around. I’ll wait if you can tell me this is going to be within six months or whatever but I didn’t want to just be waiting around for that one fight. I want to be able to fight and train and live out my passion. I didn’t want it to be based around just one fighter. So I was welcome to the fact to rematch her, it’s just they didn’t have any answer if she really was going to come back and if she did, how long it would be.”

Tom Taylor - December 20, 2017

Holly Holm’s brutal, head-kick knockout of Ronda Rousey ranks among the biggest upsets in UFC history. Leading up the fight, Rousey glimmered with an era of invisibility. One well-placed kick later, and she was crumpled on the canvas in a dazed heap. Cris Cyborg, who will attempt to defend her UFC women’s bantamweight title against Holm in the main event of UFC 219 on December 30, has a hunch as to why Rousey’s fight with Holm went the way it did. The featherweight champ believes Rousey was looking past Holm – and right at her.

Drake Riggs - December 18, 2017

Cris Cyborg is the UFC Featherweight champion of the world and most notable for being one of the most dangerous and feared fighters in all of MMA. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a soft side when she’s not in the cage. This Christmas, Cris will be asking all who live or are visiting Las Vegas the weekend after her championship bout with Holly Holm at UFC 219, to donate new teddy bears. The teddy bears will be gathered up by Cris’ team and hand-delivered to the kids at the Sunrise Children’s Hospital.

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 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 30, 2017

After a long time of negotiations and build-up, we finally have the UFC women’s featherweight title fight that many believed we should have gotten all along. Cris Cyborg will defend her title against Holly Holm in just a month to also contend her status as the best female fighter in the world. Cyborg’s coach thinks Holm’s last fight is telling on how the scrap at UFC 219 will go, but thinks even the best Holly Holm will have no choice but to fall at Cyborg’s hands. “When I watched Holly Holm’s last fight against Bethe Correia or whatever it was, that Bethe girl, Bethe, her level of striking is at the lowest level of the game, the lowest level of the game! And I watched her f-cking batter around for three rounds, Holly trying to get her out of there. Did she finally get her out of there with the head kick? Yes. Should that have happened in the first minute of the first round of the level that both of them are at? Yes. She should have knocked her – look at what Ronda Rousey did to that girl. Ronda Rousey, again, the lowest level of striking in the MMA game, went out and knocked Bethe Correia the f-ck out in the first fucking minute of their god damn fight. And styles make fights, there’s no math on that and I get it, I get it, but Bethe Correia is very ordinary, very ordinary with a low skill-level in striking. Sorry Bethe if you hear this interview, it’s no disrespect to you but it’s just a fact. It is what it is. And I didn’t see the Holly Holm that fought Ronda Rousey out there when she fought Bethe. If there was, she probably would have smoked her a little sooner now wouldn’t she?”

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.”

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.  

Justin Golightly - October 17, 2017

This morning, USADA paid a visit to Cris Cyborg today for her third test in a month. There was no problem, except for Cyborg wants the same testing frequency for her potential opponent Holly Holm, or any opponent for that matter. Does this mean they’re still in negotiations? Either way, Cyborg took to Twitter to make her request known and eventually drew out a shade-filled response from Holly Holm herself. I’ve actually just wasted a minute of my life on this video.

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 - 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.”