Cyborg vs Vieira: unbeaten in MMA since 2018, 8-0 in boxing
Cris Cyborg is 41, has not lost an MMA fight since December 2018 and is 8-0 as a pro boxer. Ketlen Vieira, fresh from the UFC, meets her at PFL Tampa.
Cris Cyborg has not lost an MMA fight since December 2018.
She turned 41 in July. On Saturday she headlines PFL Tampa against Ketlen Vieira in a five round featherweight main event at Benchmark International Arena, and she arrives at 29-2 with nine straight wins behind her, a run that now covers three promotions and seven and a half years.
The last woman to beat her was Amanda Nunes, by knockout, at UFC 232 on December 29, 2018. Everything since has gone the same way:
- Felicia Spencer, unanimous decision, UFC 240, July 2019
- Julia Budd, Bellator 238, January 2020
- Arlene Blencowe, Bellator 249, October 2020
- Leslie Smith, Bellator 259, May 2021
- Sinead Kavanagh, Bellator 271, November 2021
- Blencowe again, Bellator 279, April 2022
- Cat Zingano, Bellator 300, October 2023
- Larissa Pacheco, unanimous decision, PFL Super Fights, October 2024
- Sara Collins, submission at 2:55 of round three, PFL Europe 4, December 2025
Nine fights, three organizations, zero losses.
The other record
What has kept her busy in between is a professional boxing career that nobody talks about enough, and which is now 8-0.
It started in September 2022 with a decision over Simone da Silva and a second decision over Gabrielle Holloway three months later. Since then she has stopped six straight: Kelsey Wickstrum at 1:21 of the first in January 2024, Aria Wild at 0:58 of the second that June, Karen Fernandez at 1:16 of the second in March 2025, Valentina Angarita at 1:36 of the third two weeks later, Precious Harris-McCray at 1:57 of the second in May 2025, and Paulina Cardona in a title bout at Nacao Cyborg 15 this March.
Six knockouts in six fights, all inside three rounds. It should be noted that the opposition has been thin by design, which is what a 40-year-old MMA champion building a second sport does. It should also be noted that she has been fighting professionally in two combat sports simultaneously in her forties and has lost neither.
Vieira arrives from a very different place
Vieira is 34, 16-5, and she was in a UFC cage as recently as May 16 of this year, when she beat Jacqueline Cavalcanti by unanimous decision. Three months later she is headlining a PFL card.
Her résumé is the strongest thing on this bill after Cyborg's. She has beaten Holly Holm by split decision, Miesha Tate over three rounds, Pannie Kianzad, Macy Chiasson and Sijara Eubanks. She has lost to Kayla Harrison at UFC 307, and dropped split decisions to Norma Dumont last November and Raquel Pennington in 2023.
She is also the harder woman in the sport to put away. Vieira has been stopped once in 21 professional fights, by Irene Aldana at 4:51 of the first round at UFC 245 in December 2019, and 14 of her 21 have gone to the judges. Her last 10 fights in a row have gone the distance. That is the case for her, and it is not a small one: Cyborg wins by taking people out, and the last person to take Vieira out did it almost seven years ago.
PFL Tampa goes Saturday, August 22 at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, streaming on ESPN+ in the United States, on the same night the UFC runs Hernandez vs Rodrigues in Sacramento. Cyborg has gone seven and a half years without an MMA defeat. Vieira has gone almost as long without anyone finding her off switch.