End of an era! Cris Cyborg shares retirement plan: ‘Next year is my last year’

Cris Cyborg has been cracking skulls in MMA since 2005, which means this is her 20th year of professional competition. At 28-2, she’s undoubtedly one of the best women to ever fight in the sport, and now she’s adding boxing to her resume as well.

But all of her combat sports pursuits will come to a conclusion by the end of 2026. In a new interview with DAZN leading up to her PFL Europe fight on December 13th against Sara Collins, Cyborg laid out her retirement plan.

“We made a plan,” she said. “I have one fight after Sara Collins, I have one fight left in my contract with PFL. And we are going to make a plan to retire. It’s going to complete one year in sport. For sure, I want to do some boxing fights next year. And hopefully, I can fight for one boxing title next year, too.”

“But next year, keep it up, check on me. But I believe next year is my last year. I have another goal in my life, and for sure, this chapter will be closed next year.”

Cyborg has always had an issue getting worthy opponents to face, and that issue hasn’t gotten better with her move to boxing. There’s plenty of big fights out there for her, but no one who actually wants to fight. So it sounds like the 40-year-old former UFC, Bellator, PFL, and Strikeforce champion will grab a boxing belt and move on.

To what, though?

“I have a dream in my heart to be a vet, so I went back to study,” Cyborg revealed. “This is one passion in my heart, taking care of the animals. I love this. This is like when I’m a young kid, and why not?”