For the past few years, Cris Cyborg has made it clear that she wants to step from the MMA cage into the boxing ring.
Now, with her Bellator debut ahead of her and the Viacom owned company’s relationship with both Showtime and DAZN, her boxing debut may not be far behind.
Speaking with ESPN at Bellator 238 media day on Thursday, Cyborg’s manager Audie Attar confirmed that not only is boxing on Cyborg’s to-do list, but that it’s in her contract that she can.
“One thing that made me sign with Bellator and I think is nice is I can do boxing or pro wrestling if I have the opportunity,” Cyborg told ESPN on Thursday. “For sure, I need some time to train in boxing. Because I’m really focused on MMA. Let’s see.”
While Cyborg has had to prepare for a fight against Bellator’s featherweight champion Julia Budd on January 25th inside The Forum in Los Angeles, the idea of the sweet science has not left her brain.
“I train boxing,” Cyborg said. “But I think for fighting boxing, it’s different. It’s a different sport. … I think you have to only train this because mixed martial arts is a lot of training all day. It’s a different sport. Different arts.”
“[Cyborg] said to me before she left for training camp, ‘Let me just get through this one,'” Bellator President Scott Coker said. “Because every boxing promoter that has a 145- or 155-pound female has been calling me, going, ‘Hey, we would like to fight Cyborg.’ I said, ‘Why don’t we talk about this and see if we could get something scheduled?’ She said, ‘No, I just want to get through the fight, I’m focused on Julia. … After the fight, we can talk about it.'”
“I don’t have this plan yet,” Cyborg said of boxing and rumors of a fight with DAZN’s Cecilia Braekhus. “I don’t have anything for now. I don’t worry about that. … One thing is I never choose my opponents. I just have to be ready and let my manager deal with this.”