The Brazilian icon has continued to stay active in combat sports despite fighting once per year in MMA for some time.
In her PFL debut last October, Cris Cyborg convincingly beat Larissa Pacheco to once again prove that at 39-years-old, she is still at the top of the food chain.
Whilst her MMA career has started to slow down, the former UFC champion has started to accumulate experience in the boxing ring with Cyborg hoping to become a two-sport titleholder.
Cyborg has targeted Claressa Shields in particular but after getting her hand raised in another boxing match on March 3, an MMA return could be next for her.
Difficulty finding opponents has been a consistent theme of her incredible career and after everything that she has accomplished, the 30-fight veteran is being more selective.
Cris Cyborg names Leah McCourt as a potential opponent, dismisses Larissa Pacheco rematch
In a recent exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow, Cris Cyborg spoke about her plans to return to the PFL and whether there has been any communication between both parties at this time.
She has been keeping busy with her boxing training in the meantime but a second outing under the PFL banner does appear to be on the cards for later this year.
“I believe my next MMA fight is gonna be in the fall. So after the fight, I just keep working, keep training and yes, I believe it’s gonna be around that time.”
During the time where Kayla Harrison was the face of the promotion, the PFL had a tournament-sized roster of female fighters in the heavier weight divisions.
When signing Cyborg via the promotion’s acquisition of Bellator in 2023, PFL also brought over several names that were being linked with the dominant featherweight champion at the time.
One of those names, Leah McCourt, is the option that Cyborg herself named when talking about potential opponents despite the fact that the 32-year-old was submitted in the first-round last September by Sara Collins.
“PFL have other girls I can fight. They have Leah McCourt who can fight with me, we were already supposed to fight in Bellator to defend the title. They have other girls there.”
The main fight that has been discussed by the PFL themselves regarding Cyborg is a rematch with Larissa Pacheco following their great clash at the debut of the Super Fights series in Riyadh last October.
Whilst the matchup sold itself last time as two dominant Brazilians collided for the first time at very different stages in their careers, the victor isn’t interested in running it back without a clear reason.
“I’m not interested in fighting Larissa Pacheco. She’s 10 years younger than me and I already beat her so I believe that if you watch the fight, you see I win 4 rounds to 1 and I want different fights. I have my next two last fights, this is now my legacy tour and I believe the fans deserve a different match.”
Cris Cyborg has often found herself in this difficult position
The simple fact of the matter is that aside from stars like Cris Cyborg, Larissa Pacheco, Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes, finding top level female fighters around the 145-pound mark or higher has never been easy.
Not to mention the fact that Cyborg has been at the top of the sport for such a long time that she has already faced the majority of the viable opponents.
Leah McCourt is a fresh matchup but the PFL might not see the value in putting Cyborg into a fight that most people will probably see as one-sided.
The promotion finds itself in a similar position to the Kayla Harrison years where Larissa Pacheco rematches are both the top option and not overly appealing for the winner of the previous encounter.