Tag: Cyborg Justino

Bellator signs Cris Cyborg to ‘biggest contract in women’s MMA history’

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: MMA Fighting

It didn’t take long for MMA free agent Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino to find a new home as Bellator MMA president Scott Coker announced Monday she has signed an exclusive multi-fight, multi-year deal with the company.

Coker told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani that the deal “is the biggest contract in women’s MMA history.” The amount of fights, guaranteed money, and date/opponent for the 34-year-old’s first fight weren’t announced.

TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter noted on Twitter that Ronda Rousey made $3 million for her UFC 207 fight against then-champion Amanda Nunes.

Shortly following her July UFC 240 win over Felicia Spencer, Dana White announced the company was “out of the Cyborg business” and waived their 90-day exclusive negotiating window, ending a tumultuous yet profile several years between the two sides.

Coker and Justino have done business before in Strikeforce where she rose to prominence, notably in a fight against Gina Carano in August 2009 where she won the promotion’s first women’s featherweight title via first round TKO.

UFC signs Cyborg vs. Amanda Nunes for final show of 2018

Posted on by Josh Nason

The UFC has signed their second champion vs. champion fight of 2018 as women’s featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino will face women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes at UFC 232 in Las Vegas on December 29th, the promotion’s final show of the calendar year.

The news was first reported by Brett Okamoto of ESPN. The fight will be for Justino’s featherweight title.

The 33-year-old Justino will be looking for the third defense of the title she won in July 2017. She has been unbeaten since her pro debut in 2005, a stretch of more than 20 fights, and is 5-0 in the UFC.

The 30-year-old Nunes has won seven straight and has three successful defenses of the title she won from Miesha Tate at UFC 200 in July 2016. 

It’s unknown if this will be the main event of the show or if another title fight will headline instead. Given the promotion’s schedule over the next few months, that would appear to be unlikely unless Daniel Cormier was to defend his light heavyweight title or if the much-anticipated Max Holloway vs. Brian Ortega featherweight title fight was slotted there instead.

In July, Cormier bested Stipe Miocic to win the UFC heavyweight title to go along with his light heavyweight crown.

Cyborg Justino helps save the day for March’s UFC 222

Posted on by Josh Nason

The Fertitta-owned era of the UFC had several top fighters who could be relied upon to “save a show” and jump into a fight when a main event dropped out due to injury. The post-Fertitta era now has their own growing star who earned that designation: Cyborg Justino.

The UFC women’s featherweight champion once again has stepped up on short notice to headline a show as she will defend her title against UFC newcomer and former Invicta bantamweight champion Yana Kunitskaya in the main event of March 3rd’s UFC 222, first reported by MMA Fighting.

Additionally, Frankie Edgar will now face rising contender Brian Ortega in the co-main event in a bout that will unofficially give men’s featherweight champion Max Holloway his next challenger. Edgar was supposed to fight Holloway in the main event but the champion had to withdraw due to injury.

Justino last competed on December 30th, outlasting Holly Holm to successfully defend her title. That was also a fight made with just over a month’s notice.

The rest of the Las Vegas-based card includes Stefan Struve vs. Andrei Arlovski, CB Dolloway vs. Hector Lombard, Cat Zingano vs. Ketlen Viera, John Dodson vs. Pedro Muhnoz, and more.

Cris Cyborg vs. Holly Holm set for UFC 219

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris “Cyborg” Justino vs. Holly Holm — the biggest women’s marquee fight UFC could put on with its current roster — was announced late Thursday for UFC 219 on December 30th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV.

The promotion had been trying to put the fight together, but last week Holm’s agent, Lenny Fresquez, said the match was dead. However, negotiations restarted the past few days and were just completed, giving UFC a championship fight for a PPV that is just over six weeks away.

Justino (18-1-1) won the championship in a UFC weight division that really only has one competitor, herself. She overwhelmed longtime bantamweight Tonya Evinger to win the vacant title earlier this year.

Holm, who also fights at bantamweight, moved up to featherweight to face Germaine de Randamie in the first-ever UFC women’s featherweight championship fight earlier in the year, created partiall because a UFC PPV in Brooklyn needed a main event title match.

De Randamie won the match via close decision, and then was stripped of the title when not facing Justino, who the division was created for.

Holm (11-3), is beat known for beating Ronda Rousey before more than 56,000 fans in Melbourne, Australia, in one of the most memorable moments in UFC history. She followed that up losing three fights in a row before knocking out Bethe Correia in June.

Holm also drew one of the company’s best television ratings of the past several years in a fight against Valentina Shevchenko, which she lost via decision.

Justino has been a major name fighter coming off a Strikeforce featherweight title win over Gina Carano that set a ratings record at the time for Showtime. She lost her title after testing positive for Stanazolol, but has not lost a fight in more than 12 years.

UFC News: Cyborg likely to return in July, DJ to defend flyweight title

Posted on by Josh Nason

Wednesday’s UFC Tonight was full of news on upcoming fights, some of the ‘Wow!’ variety and some of the ‘Meh’ variety. 

UFC 201

With UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler set to return to action at Atlanta’s UFC 201 (July 30) against Tyron Woodley, the rest of the main card is starting to take shape with a new title match and another catchweight fight featuring a female destroyer of worlds.

In the co-main event, flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson will defend against #6 ranked Wilson Reis, he of the one-fight win streak. 3-1 as a flyweight, he’s essentially filling a role here as Johnson wants to continue to fight frequently in an effort to break Anderson Silva’s consecutive title defense streak. He’s at 8 right now and with Reis and a December title defense against a TUF winner on the docket, 10 looks to be an easy bet.

While the flyweights haven’t done much for the box office, UFC is hoping their next female breakout star will help as they are working on Cris Cyborg vs. Germaine de Randamie at a 140-pound catchweight fight on that Atlanta show. Cyborg wasted no time in dispatching Leslie Smith at UFC 198 in her Octagon debut while de Randamie picked up a big win in front of her hometown fans in Rotterdam a few weeks ago.

On Twitter, Cyborg is denying it vehemently in both English and Portguese.

Assuming those are the top three fights and considering the event falls in the UFC 200 afterglow, there’s not going to be a lot of buzz for this show with this promotionally low-key cast of characters involved. 

UFC Fight Night South Dakota

The July 13th event headlined by an awesome lightweight tilt in Michael Chiesa vs. Tony Ferguson got a sweet co-main event as bantamweight contenders Michael McDonald and John Lineker will do battle. McDonald returned after a two-year absence in January and submitted Masanori Kanehara in the second round, while Lineker won an entertaining decision over Rob Font at UFC 198 last Saturday.

Other Stuff

UFC is looking to bring an event to Cleveland, OH, this September and have heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic as the headliner. If that comes to pass and Alistair Overeem gets the opportunity, there goes The Reem’s plans to be on the November MSG show.