{"id":759305,"date":"2026-06-25T12:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759305\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T12:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:12:10","slug":"cris-cyborg-pfl-star-to-end-glittering-career-against-ketlen-viera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759305\/","title":{"rendered":"Cris Cyborg: PFL star to end glittering career against Ketlen Viera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cris Cyborg will defend her PFL featherweight world title against Ketlen Viera in what is set to be the final MMA fight of her glittering career.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old – widely regarded as one of the best women’s mixed martial artists of all time – will face fellow Brazilian Viera in Tampa, Florida on 22 August.<\/p>\n

A former UFC featherweight champion, Cyborg has won world titles across five promotions in an enduring 20-year career.<\/p>\n

She last fought in December, stopping Sara Collins to claim the inaugural PFL featherweight belt after the Bellator titles were rebranded, for her ninth straight win.<\/p>\n

Following victory, Cyborg said she would fight once more in MMA in 2026, but did not rule out continuing to box.<\/p>\n

Writing on X, Cyborg says the fight with Viera was set up after boxing world champion Claressa Shields turned down a bout between the pair.<\/p>\n

Undisputed heavyweight champion Shields will drop down to middleweight<\/a> to face WBC and WBA champion Kaye Scott on 15 August.<\/p>\n

“This was why I’m returning to MMA instead of boxing Claressa Shields,” said Cyborg.<\/p>\n

“Since Claressa Shields has turned down my $2,000,000 offer to fight the 5-1 Kaye Scott, I might as well return to MMA and defend my PFL belt.”<\/p>\n

Cyborg added she is “excited” for the “great challenge” Viera, 34, will provide.<\/p>\n

Viera left the UFC this year after winning 10 of her 15 fights in the promotion.<\/p>\n

Cyborg made her debut in 2005 and has won 29 of her 32 fights, with 21 victories coming via knockout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cris Cyborg will defend her PFL featherweight world title against Ketlen Viera in what is set to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-759305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}