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Cris Cyborg was defeated by Amanda Nunes in UFC 232. You may or may not be surprised to learn that it was only her first loss in over 13 and a half years and her second career defeat overall.
Don't let that one defeat change any perceptions about Cris Cyborg. For over a decade, she's been the most feared female fighter on the planet. Her loss to Nunes was a historic MMA moment, but the fact of the matter is that there are simply no two female fighters on the face of the earth better than Cyborg and Nunes.
Cyborg's first defeat came on her debut, but ever since then, she's been an absolute wrecking machine, picking up World Championships in Strikeforce, Invicta and UFC.
But there's a whole lot about the 3-time World Champion that you probably don't know about. Here are some interesting facts about one of the baddest women on the planet.
#5 UFC created a whole division for her
How often do you have fighters that are so popular that not only do you have to sign them, but you have to create an entire weight division for them?
This is exactly what happened to Cyborg. For a decade, she had been dominating and running through every opponent in various promotions. Her UFC signing was long overdue and finally happened in 2015.
While her first two bouts were in catchweight, UFC knew that Cyborg wouldn't physically be able to make the 135-pound weight cut. This led them to create the UFC Featherweight Women's Championship.
She wanted to fight Ronda Rousey for years, but Rousey demanded that it be in 135lbs. Perhaps it was the right call that Rousey made to avoid fighting her. Cyborg unsurprisingly won the UFC Featherweight title and made two successful defences with it.
#4 Origin of the "Cyborg" name
Before she was "Cyborg", she was just known as Cristiane Justino Venâncio. She married fellow-MMA fighter Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos, a veteran who competed in various promotions like Bellator, Pancrase, PRIDE, Strikeforce, to name a few.
He's sadly most known for his gruesome career-ending injury, where a knee to the skull by Michael "Venom" Page at Bellator 158 saw his skull get a dent in it. It's not an image you want to see, but he happens to be the man who Cristiane adapted his name from.
#3 She was part of the first major MMA card headlined by women
It took a while before women started headlining MMA events as often as they do now. Cyborg took on Gina Carano on August 15th, 2009 in what's considered the first time that women ever main evented a major MMA event.
The match was historic for more than one reason (which we'll get back to), and drew an attendance just shy of 14,000 people. It definitely paved the way for women headlining MMA events as they do now.
#2 She's lobbied for a WWE match...more than once
It's evident that Cris Cyborg is a big wrestling fan. In fact, from what it seemed, WWE was planning an angle in 2017 for Cris Cyborg to hop in and face Becky Lynch in a one-off. Cyborg stated that if Ronda Rousey wasn't going to appear in the ring anytime soon, she would more than gladly do so, calling Becky Lynch out on Twitter.
This led to a Twitter feud and they took a lot of jabs at each other. Ultimately, the plan didn't come to fruition, and Rousey debuted months later at the Royal Rumble 2018.
She also stated that she didn't mind facing (and losing) to Ronda Rousey in WWE. In an interview with MMAFighting, she said:
I think Ronda’s biggest fear was losing to me, so if we were to do it in WWE she would have to win. I don’t have such a big ego, but if we were to put on a show for the fans, something like that, no problem.
#1 She's the first and only woman to beat Gina Carano
Gina Carano was quite a marketable female MMA star before it became mainstream through Ronda Rousey. It was no wonder that her fight with Cyborg headlined an event that featured two other men's championship bouts (one of them featuring Gegard Mousasi).
She lost to Cyborg at 4:59 of the very first round. Cyborg handed Carano her first defeat and became the inaugural Strikeforce Women's Featherweight Champion. Surprisingly, that turned out to be Carano's very last fight. She had four more fights on her contract with UFC (when they brought out Strikeforce), but for some reason or the other, comeback fights never materialised.
She was supposed to return in 2011 for Strikeforce, but was pulled from the card after failing a pre-fight medical examination. Ronda Rousey herself revealed that she was supposed to face Carano in 2014, but it didn't happen.
Imagine the impact that Cyborg had that she retired such an elite-level talent!
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