At this point in the career of Cris Cyborg, the question marks aren’t about where she stands in the conversation of best female MMA fighter of all-time or who will be her greatest challenge in 2019 and beyond, but about motivation.
Let’s face it, she’s done it all over the course of her nearly 14-year MMA career, winning titles in the UFC, Strikeforce and Invicta FC while beating a Who’s Who of the sport. But dominance comes with a price, and after she took a short-notice fight against former Invicta bantamweight champion Yana Kunitskaya in March and still dispatched her foe in less than four minutes, wondering how Cyborg will get out of bed in the morning and do roadwork or spend countless hours in the gym perfecting her craft had to be a concern for her legion of fans.