Cris Cyborg

Cris Cyborg first met her future husband Evangelista Santos at the Chute Boxe Academy in 2005 and they started to live together three months later. The couple later got married, following which she took up his nickname ‘Cyborg’, as well as his surname Santos. Following their separation in December 2011, she again started using her maiden name Justino, but kept her stage-name ‘Cyborg’.

Cristiane Justino Venâncio was born on July 9, 1985 in Curitiba, Brazil, to Jurandir Justino and Cersima Gorete de Morais. She has a brother named Rafael who also trained at Chute Boxe Academy.

She started training handball when she was 9 years old, sometimes practicing even with the male team, and later became part of her school handball team. According to her mother, she was very calm as a child and never stayed out late to party.

In 2004, the founder and head coach of Chute Boxe Academy, Rudimar Fedrigo, saw her playing in a high school handball championship game, and offered her a card to visit his gym. While she was hesitant at first, Fedrigo, impressed by her strength and athleticism, encouraged her to become an MMA fighter.

Cris Cyborg started her MMA career on May 17, 2005 with a first-round loss to Erica Paes via knee-bar submission at the Brazil-based Show Fight 2 promotion. She got her first win against Vanessa Porto at Storm Samurai 9 on November 20, 2005, and went on to register three consecutive wins in the first round throughout the next year.

On October 21, 2006, she faced Edna Gloria in her first Muay Thai event at Estimulo de Muay Thai in Curitiba, Paraná, which she won via KO 1:30 minutes into the game. Following her MMA fight in November 2006, she took a two-year break from professional fighting.

She resumed her MMA career in a Catchweight bout on July 26, 2008 at EliteXC: Unfinished Business in Stockton, California, and won by defeating Shayna Baszler by TKO in the second round. In her next fight, she faced Yoko Takahashi on October 4, 2008, at EliteXC: Heat, winning via unanimous decision in the third round.

In early 2009, her bout with Dutch submission specialist Marloes Coenen at XMMA 7 was cancelled as Elite XC went out of business, following which she signed to fight for Strikeforce, which acquired Elite XC. Despite being overweight for her debut Strikeforce fight against Hitomi Akano on April 11, 2009, at Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz, she entered the fight with her opponent’s approval and won via third round TKO.

She next faced Gina Carano at the inaugural Women's Featherweight Championship on August 15, 2009, at Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg, the first major MMA event headlined by women, in San Jose, California. She won the fight via TKO with one second to spare in the first round, and stated after the match that she was honored to fight Carano.

Cris Cyborg is the current UFC Women's Featherweight Champion, who previously was the only Strikeforce Women's Featherweight World Champion and the first Invicta FC Featherweight World Champion. She was named the ‘Female Fighter of the Year’ by many MMA publications in 2009 and earned that honor at World MMA Awards twice in 2009 and 2010.