Cristiane Justino Venâncio, also popularly called as Cris Cyborg is a well-known American-
Brazilian mixed martial artist, born on July 9, 1985 in Curitiba, Brazil.
Cyborg was the most dominating figure in women’s MMA history for more than a decade.
She conquered the featherweight division in three different organizations and paved the
way for the next generation of female fighters.
She is also the only MMA fighter in history, male or female, to become a Grand Slam Champion,
holding world championships across four major mixed martial arts promotions.
As of now, Cyborg is under contract with Bellator MMA.
Cyborg was previously married to MMA fighter Evangelist Santos aka Cyborg.
She adopted his nickname and became known by the name Cris Cyborg even after they had
decided to call it quits in December 2011.
She announced her engagement with her longtime sweetheart, trainer, and former MMA fighter
Ray Elbe in 2017.
Cyborg was a national-level team handball player in Brazil before being discovered by
Rudimar Fedrigo, a Chute Boxe Academy trainer.
She made her anticipated United States MMA debut in July 2008, against Shayna Baszler
at EliteXC: Unfinished Business and won the fight by TKO in the second round.
Cyborg later signed to fight for Strikeforce and rose to prominence when she won the Strikeforce
title on August 15, 2009, by defeating Gina Carano via first-round technical knock-out.
After a couple of title defenses in Strikeforce, Cyborg made her debut in Invicta FC, where
she defeated Marloes Coenen to be the Invicta featherweight champion.
After conquering two different organizations, Cyborg finally sined with UFC in 2015 and
made her promotional debut at UFC 198 against Leslie Smith.
She defeated her opponent via technical knockout to begin her UFC career with a bang.
One of the best bouts of her career was when she won the featherweight championship after
defeating Tonya Evinger.
She was also able to defeat Holly Holm and Yana Kunitskaya in her next two matches.
Her only UFC defeat came after she went down to Amanda Nunes at UFC 232.
It was her first defeat since she lost her debut fight.
Her last UFC fight was against Felicia Spencer at UFC 240, where she won the bout via unanimous
decision.
She holds a 6-1 UFC record.
On September 3, 2019, it was announced Cyborg had signed a multi-fight deal with Bellator
MMA, where she is the Bellator Women's Featherweight World Champion, having held the title since
January 2020.
The Brazilian is just unstoppable when she is inside the octagon and never lets her opponents
dominate over her in the game.
This is quite evident from the fact that 18 out of her 23 wins have come through knockout.
According to MCM, Cyborg has a net worth of $8 million as of January 2021.
In 2018, Cyborg legally adopted her teenage niece, making her historically the first mother
to hold a UFC championship belt.
Cyborg tested positive for an anabolic steroid in 2011.
She received heavy backlash for this move.
Cris is one of the most feared MMA fighters on the planet when the cage door closes.
But her brutal side feels like a distant dimension when she’s in her backyard.
It’s not rare to see MMA smashing machines surrounded by dogs or cats at home, or even
horses on farms.
But Cyborg went a step further, building a pet zoo.
”I love animals.
Being with them is a hobby.”, Cyborg said in an interview with MMA Fighting.
Every animal Cyborg has in her home is adopted.
The list of pets is so long the 35-year-old MMA vet has to stop and count the pets currently
in her California home: five chickens, one pig, one parrot, one parakeet, two dogs, two
cats, and some fishes.