Cris Cyborg lambasts Claressa Shields over MMA skills, reveals pick for Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes at UFC 334

Cris Cyborg has consistently earned praise for being one of the rare athletes who've achieved considerable success in both MMA and boxing. 

Chief among her rivals in the professional boxing realm is Claressa Shields, with whom she's traded a number of barbs over the past few years. Cyborg has now taken another jibe at the American pugilist, lambasting the latter over her MMA skills. 

Additionally, Cyborg weighed in on the upcoming UFC bantamweight championship matchup between two of her MMA rivals, namely Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes. 

Cris Cyborg takes aim at Claressa Shields over her MMA skills

On one hand, Cris Cyborg holds the distinction of being the first, and thus far only, Grand Slam MMA champion. She's held the women's featherweight title in five major MMA organizations, namely Strikeforce MMA, Invicta FC, UFC, Bellator MMA, and PFL MMA. 

The Brazilian-American also captured the WIBA light middleweight belt earlier this year and boasts an unbeaten 7-0 professional boxing record. Cyborg, the reigning PFL women's featherweight ruler, is currently a free agent, and some believe that she could sign with MVP MMA (following the recent PFL-MVP merger) or with the Scott Coker-founded Ki MMA. 

On the other hand, Claressa Shields, one of her biggest critics, competed thrice in MMA from 2021 to 2024 before announcing her retirement from the sport. "T-Rex" has chosen to continue in the sport of professional boxing instead, in which she has competed since her youth and is a five-division champion in the paid ranks. 

A netizen recently posted footage of Shields's MMA fighting, praising the same and noting that she supposedly made it look easy. Well, Cyborg chimed in and -- akin to many fans and experts who've criticized Shields's MMA prowess -- sounded off on her. 

Cyborg wrote, "She's terrible. I would hear her in mma without throwing a punch...and she could weigh whatever she wanted." 

@knockoutsx She’s terrible. I would hear her in mma without throwing a punch…and she could weigh whatever she wanted

— CrisCy₿org.com 19X World Champ (@criscyborg) October 26, 2026

Cris Cyborg reveals pick for Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes at UFC 334

Cris Cyborg has long been closely linked to MMA rivals Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes as well. A super-fight between Cyborg and Harrison has been a dream matchup for fight fans for many years, whereas she's already fought Nunes once. 

Nunes bested Cyborg via TKO in their UFC women's featherweight title matchup back in 2018. However, many in the MMA community subsequently criticized Nunes and the UFC for not giving Cyborg a rematch.

Cyborg's UFC exit came the following year. She notably knocked out Cat Zingano in Bellator in 2023, with Zingano being the last person to knock Nunes out. That, in turn, fueled calls for the UFC to bring back Cyborg and book her rematch against Nunes. Nevertheless, that fight didn't materialize, nor did Cyborg's clash against Harrison. 

Here in 2026, ex-PFL women's lightweight champion and reigning UFC women's bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison is booked to face ex-two-division UFC titlist Amanda Nunes. They'll co-headline UFC 334 on November 14. 

Upon being asked for her pick as to who'll emerge victorious in the Harrison-Nunes UFC bantamweight title tilt, Cyborg picked Nunes. She wrote, "Nunes." 

@seacheo Nunes

— CrisCy₿org.com 19X World Champ (@criscyborg) October 26, 2026

It's noteworthy that the consensus was that Cyborg's most recent MMA fight, a unanimous decision win over Ketlen Vieira in the PFL, was likely her final appearance as a competitor in the sport. Nevertheless, she's lately hinted that her mixed martial arts career will continue.