AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
Cris Cyborg said she’s open to a
marquee bout against Kayla Harrison after scoring a knockout victory
over Sinead Kavanagh at Bellator 271 on Friday night.
Cyborg stopped Kavanagh with a hard
right hand midway through the first round with Harrison in
attendance.
BellatorMMA @BellatorMMA
.<a href=”https://twitter.com/criscyborg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@CrisCyborg</a> leaves no doubt as to her championship status.<br><br>She is now 4️⃣ & 0️⃣ inside the <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bellator?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Bellator</a> cage.<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bellator271?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Bellator271</a> <a href=”https://t.co/TcwYl57kPC”>pic.twitter.com/TcwYl57kPC</a>
“Kayla, thank you for coming to the
fights,” Cyborg said, per Steven Marrocco of MMA Fighting. “I
really appreciate you here. If you want to fight me one day, it’s
going to be a great fight, but [Harrison’s manager] Ali Abdelaziz
have to talk to all the promotions to make this happen.”
The former UFC women’s featherweight
championship improved her career record to 25-2 with one no-contest.
She’s 4-0 since making the move to Bellator in January 2020, when she
defeated Julia Budd to win the Bellator women’s featherweight world
championship.
Her only loss since her debut defeat in 2005 came in
December 2018 when she dropped the UFC title to Amanda Nunes.
Meanwhile, Harrison is off to a 12-0
start to her MMA career after winning judo gold medals at the 2012
and 2016 Summer Olympics.
The 31-year-old Ohio native most recently won the
2021 PFL women’s lightweight tournament with a submission victory
over Taylor Guardado in the finals last month.
Harrison confirmed to Simon Samano and
Danny Segura of MMAJunkie after attending Friday’s card she’s aiming for a fight against Cyborg,
potentially in 2022:
“Listen, she’s one of the greatest of
all time. I don’t care which way you slice it. You can’t deny her her
greatness, and I’ve made it no secret that I wanna go down as the
greatest. So, in order to do that, you’ve got to beat the greatest,
and she’s one of those people. So, for me, the greatest compliment I
can give to Cris Cyborg is that I want to fight her. That’s the
greatest honor I can say, is that I wanna share the cage with you for
25 hard minutes. I would be over the moon to have an opportunity to
fight her.”
Given both fighters’ interest in the
bout, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the long-awaited matchup come
together early next year.
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