Cris Cyborg Wants to Pursue Boxing Career After Final Fights on Current UFC Deal
Cris Cyborg has long talked about crossing over into boxing and now it appears she’s more serious than ever before about pursuing that dream.
The reigning UFC women’s featherweight champion was ringside on Saturday night when welterweight boxing champion Cecilia Braekhus defended her title to remain undefeated in her career with a perfect 33-0 record.
There was a lot of buzz afterwards about the possibility of Braekhus facing Cyborg in a boxing match at some time in the future.
Now according to Cyborg with two fights remaining on her current UFC deal, she plans to honor her contract and then begin looking towards a future boxing match with Braekhus as one potential opponent.
“Of course, I need time for training. I think four to six months months training. That would be perfect since I have two fights left in MMA and then I can focus on boxing. I’m very excited,” Cyborg told Yahoo! Sports on Saturday.
“After these fights, I will do a boxing fight. After these two fights left. Maybe I’ll come back but not for now. I want to use this time and make more boxing fights. This is my dream.”
Cyborg has long talked about crossing over into boxing after striking up a friendship with Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields, which then resulted in several training sessions together.
On Saturday night, Cyborg was even wearing a t-shirt that touted a potential matchup with Braekhus ahead of her latest title defense.
Now obviously Cyborg is still the reigning UFC women’s featherweight champion and she plans on completing her current contract with two more fights left on the deal before she would pursue a boxing match.
Then again, Cyborg sounds like she would be open to working with the UFC so she could do a boxing match similar to what Conor McGregor was granted when the promotion allowed him to fight Floyd Mayweather last year.
“I would like to work with them,” Cyborg said. “If the UFC works it and I can do boxing fights and still have the belt and come back like McGregor did, let’s see.”
Cyborg won the UFC women’s featherweight title last year and has since defended it twice with wins over Yana Kunitskaya and Holly Holm.
The latter victory probably helps Cyborg’s confidence with a transition into boxing considering Holm was a multi-time champion and two-time Fighter of the Year in that sport.
As of now, Cyborg doesn’t know when she will be returning to action although there is a featherweight fight scheduled at UFC 225 between Holm and former Invicta FC champion Megan Anderson as well as a possible champion versus champion fight against Amanda Nunes assuming she wins at UFC 224 this weekend.
