UFC champ Cris Cyborg granted boxing license by California State Athletic Commission

The UFC women’s featherweight champion just got some good news.

Having been a professional fighter since 2005, former Strikeforce and Invicta FC champion Cris Cyborg took a long, winding road to get to the UFC. After much back and forth with the organization, she finally climbed the mountaintop to be a champion in the sport’s premier organization.

But she’s not about to rest on her laurels anytime soon.

As per MMA Fighting’s Marc Raimondi, Cyborg has applied for and has been granted a boxing license in the state of California, as well as a federal boxing ID. The news was confirmed by MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, and it appears she’s heading to the junior middleweight division at 154lbs.

Curiously enough, this all comes after some footage emerged a short while ago of her training with Olympic gold medalist and the IBF and WBC female super middleweight champion Claressa Shields. Shields was quick to congratulate her on Twitter.

Cyborg has mentioned that her current UFC contract expires this October, but the UFC does have a one-year period for negotiation which is exclusive, according to Helwani. In the meantime, MMA Fighting also reports that a fight between Justino and former women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm is being worked on with nothing concrete at the moment.

The 32-year-old Cyborg continues to enjoy the spoils of being champion while being 3-0 in her UFC run and staying undefeated since her pro debut loss. Whether or not this leads to a boxing match similar to lightweight champion Conor McGregor is yet to be seen, and it will be interesting to see where this leads.