The prospect of a ‘boxing vs. MMA’ clash between unified world lightweight champion Katie Taylor and the mixed martial arts ‘Grand Slam champion’ Cris Cyborg appears to be a distinct possibility after all parties involved recently spoke of their interest in a potential fight.
Taylor has stated on more than one occasion that she has been keeping her eye on some of MMA’s more renowned strikers like Cyborg and Holly Holm as she considers her future challenges. Despite both Taylor and Cyborg having fights already lined up, the prospect of them fighting appears to be a very real one after Eddie Hearn, Taylor’s promoter, underscored his potential interest in arranging a fight between the two champions.
“I love challenges. I’ve got Arlene Blencowe next in MMA, but if we can do the Taylor fight, it will be amazing,” Cyborg recently told Sky Sports of her interest in facing the Bray native. “I like to have challenges. And I really want a boxing fight, I really like boxing. I’ve tried wrestling, I’ve tried jiu jitsu, I’ve tried Muay Thai. Always when you compete in a separate sport like this, you learn a lot.
“Before I was doing lot of boxing sparring. I was sparring pro boxer Raquel Miller. I was thinking I was going to do boxing and then we were told it was MMA, so we went back to working on that. For me it’s easy to separate. I really don’t have to think too much. When I’m boxing I’m focused on boxing and I don’t try to kick an opponent or anything.”
Let’s do it! https://t.co/q03xTVAvkp
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) October 13, 2020
Hearn responded to Cyborg’s interest simply: “Let’s do it!”
However, any fight between Cyborg and Taylor would have to wait as both already have their next fights confirmed. As she mentioned, Cyborg defends her Bellator featherweight title against Arlene Blencowe this week while Taylor is tasked with taking on mandatory challenger Miriam Gutierrez next month.