Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino recently defeated Tonya Evinger at UFC 214 to become the second ever UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion.
Cyborg has aspirations to compete as a professional boxer and she took a huge step towards that goal when she was granted a boxing license by the state of California.
Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting was the first to break the story.
When Cyborg does eventually step into the boxing ring, the competitor will compete at 154 pounds, which is nine pounds about the women’s featherweight division she rules over in the UFC.
The fighter’s UFC contract does expire this coming October, but there is now a one year negotiation period between Cyborg and the UFC since the fighter currently holds a title in the promotion.
For her first potential defense of the UFC Women’s Featherweight Title, the champion would like to face former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Holly Holm. The promotion is attempting to put the fight together and Holm has stated in the past that she is simply waiting for a contract to sign.
In recent months, the UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion has been training alongside pro boxer Clarissa Shields and she recently walked Shields to the ring for her bout against Nikki Adler last month.
If Cyborg does make the transition to boxing, then she would join the likes of UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor, Nam Phan and Tim Hague as UFC fighters who transitioned to boxing.
