MMA superstar Cris Cyborg is following in the footsteps of Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz.
The feared UFC women's featherweight champion has been granted a boxing license by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC).
Cyborg's contract with UFC is set to expire in October. She is reportedly looking to compete in the junior middleweight limit of 154-pounds.
With her UFC contract set to expire in the near future, she may have obtained a boxing license to apply pressure on the UFC to offer her a better deal in upcoming negotiations.
The UFC has been trying reach a deal to match Cyborg against former champion, Holly Holm, an ex-beltholder in the UFC and boxing.
Cyborg, 32-years-old and undefeated since making her MMA debut in 2005, discussed her interest in a boxing run a few weeks ago.
She is very good friends with two-time Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields, who recently captured the IBF, WBC super middleweight titles. The two of them have sparred with each other in training camp.
When discussing last month's mega-bout between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor - she was confident Mayweather would be too much for her UFC stablemate.
"I’d like to box,” Cyborg said. "Claressa and I trained together and there’s no one better for you to train but an Olympic medalist. She’s fast. It’s good to train with someone better than you because you evolve, you see more things. But I would definitely box if I have an opportunity like McGregor.”
"It’s different when you train with someone that knows boxing [like Shields]. But when you train with someone that doesn’t know boxing … it’s not that McGregor doesn’t know boxing, but he’s not a boxer his entire life. When you’re sparring with someone that is not from boxing it’s more difficult because he throws a different jab compared to a boxer, has different faints, so there are more surprises."
