Cris Cyborg will be making her much anticipated debut at Bellator 238 on Saturday, January 25th from the Forum in Inglewood, California.
Considered one of the best MMA fighters of all time, Cyborg will not have an easy task in hand in her debut. She has been thrown directly into a title fight against the 145lb champion. Julia Budd has been the featherweight champion since the inaugural belt was introduced at Bellator 174 in March of 2017. Since then she has rattled off 3 title defenses in a very convincing manner.
Chris Cyborg became a household in women’s MMA beginning in her days at Strikeforce and Invicta FC. At both these organizations, she demonstrated thorough dominance snagging the inaugural titles in each promotion.
After an impressive run in 2 organizations, Cyborg moved onto the UFC where her stardom rose. She won the vacant title at UFC 247 with a unanimous decision victory over Tonya Evinger. She went onto defend her title against Holly Holm and Yana Kunitskaya.
UFC 232 in December of 2018 would be the last we would see of Cris Cyborg in the promotion. This was a battle of the 2 best women in MMA. Unfortunately for Cyborg, she faced her first MMA loss. Reigning bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes who won via 1st round KO to become the 1st ever woman’s double champ in the UFC.
Many thought that there would be an immediate rematch but this fight never came to fruition. Many rumors circulated that there was a clash between Dana White and Cris Cyborg. Cyborg accused Dana White of bullying her and that he never apologized. Dana White was very quick to dismiss this accusation mentioning the UFC offered her a rematch with Nunes but did not accept. She was released shortly after.