The newly crowned champion has expressed some interest in professional boxing, but Bellator MMA President Scott Coker has some other ideas.
“We were going to try to have her box right now against one of the world champion boxers,” Coker told MMA Junkie. “I talked to (Cyborg’s manager) Audie (Attar) about a week ago and I said, and he agreed, he actually brought it up when we talked about her competing in boxing, I said, ‘With everything that’s going on and this big pause in this combat sports schedule, I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to have her box because we need to have her fight in MMA.'”
Cyborg has done some training in the past with boxers, but she has yet to make a professional boxing debut.
Coker also says that there are still a lot of contenders in the women’s featherweight division for Cyborg to defend her title against.
“If you look at 145-pound weight class, I think there’s two or three girls that would love to fight her,” Coker said. “After the last performance with Budd we got a couple calls. When she fights, that I’m not sure. Depending on who is available we’ll find out who her next opponent we’ll be.”
There is no word yet on what is next for Cyborg, but her next title defense could come in an empty arena setting, as Bellator MMA plans to run empty arena shows this Summer.
