Cris Cyborg In Workout Gear Calls Holly Holms “The Greatest Female Boxer”

MMA fighter Cris Cyborg (real name Cristiane Justino Venâncio) is training with Holly Holms—who she says is the greatest female boxer in the world. Cyborg, 38, shared a picture of herself wearing yellow leggings and a black sports bra, posing next to Holms in the cage. “Now we are only 2 weeks away from the greatest female boxer to ever compete in MMA @hollyholm return to the cage. Don’t Miss Holly Holm X Judo Kayla at UFC 300. Holly is coming for all the glory,” she captioned the post. Here’s what Cyborg’s diet, fitness, and training looks like.

1. Cyborg Origins

Cyborg chose her name as being reflective of her tough personality and focus. “I always was very disciplined in all of the sports that I practiced and always tried to make it my objective to do everything it took to do my best and not to worry about the consequences," she told Soul Brasil Magazine. "So then, when I was training at kickboxing I met my husband Evangelista 'Cyborg' who also is a fighter. So from then on my last name was stuck being Cris 'Cyborg'. I competed a lot as a fighter in Brazil, but it got to the point where there was no one left to fight. There were two years when I didn’t fight competitively at all. It was then that there came the opportunity to come to the United States to train and fight."

2. MMA Diet

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Cyborg details the ideal fighting diet on her website: it should consist of a good protein, starch, and salad, two hours before a fight. “You’ll want to eat a high-protein, high-carbohydrate meal about two hours before your fight. A pre-fight meal like this will give you a slow and steady release of energy that lasts for hours. It will also help to reduce the amount of lactic acid your body produces as you train, which can cause soreness and fatigue. Pre-fight meals should also be low in fat, fiber, and sodium. The last thing you want is a full stomach during a fight, so you want to eat a meal that is high in calories but that doesn’t leave you feeling overly full.”

3. Martial Arts Expert

Cyborg’s training is solidly based in martial arts—several different types. "I began with Muay Thai and then I learned to incorporate others important martial art forms, among them Wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu," she told Soul Brasil Magazine. "This fusion is very important if you think seriously about competing on MMA, and in particular the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on floor technique."

4. Healing Meals

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Cyborg advises fighters to choose healthy foods that help repair the body post-fight. “This means eating lots of protein and healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, and salmon. You may also want to consume a sports drink like Gatorade or Powerade to replace the electrolytes your body lost while fighting,” according to her website. “Pre- and post-fight meals are also an excellent opportunity to add in foods rich in vitamins and minerals, which will help you recover faster and minimize post-fight soreness and inflammation.”

5. Proud Role Model

Cyborg is thrilled more women are going into the fighting world. “The female MMA is getting more and more popular and I am really happy about this,” she told Soul Brasil Magazine. “I will do what is within my reach to be able to contribute to its greater popularity and to see more doors opening for women in the MMA. The perspectives really are great. I think that by fighting well competitively and showing all of my potential I can contribute to the MMA attracting more and more interest from the public in general.”

Holly Holm, a celebrated fighter in MMA, first gained global recognition with her fight against Ronda Rousey, solidifying her place as a top competitor. Known for her intense training regime and relentless dedication, Holm recently shared a snapshot from a mountain run on her Instagram, where she looked powerful and focused in her pink workout gear. Captioning the post “5 miles,” Holm continues to showcase the fitness routines that keep her at the top of her game. From her rigorous training camps to diverse fitness classes, Holm follows a multifaceted approach to health and wellness. Here’s a glimpse into how she maintains her fierce form, prepares for fights, and stays mentally and physically resilient.

1. She Runs

As you can see from her Instagram post, Holm likes to run to stay in shape. She also talked about this to Muscle and Fitness. “Other than that I run five days a week, with Saturday’s sprint run being one of them. Monday through Friday four out of the five days I’m running distance as well…Saturday I just run. The other runs I’m going slowly. I’m not training to be a runner; I’m training to be a fighter. When I sprint run, I go as hard as I can. When I do distance runs I don’t care how fast I go. I do it to keep moving, keep the weight coming down and just kinda cruise.”

2. She Takes Fitness Classes

Holm shared some of her favorite workouts with Muscle and Fitness. She revealed that she goes to fitness classes five days a week. “Monday through Friday every morning we have class and it’s intense,” Holm says. “They’re pretty hardcore workouts. Monday there’s MMA sparring, Tuesday is sparring, Wednesday is wrestling, Thursday is MMA day, Friday is wrestling, and Saturday I do sprint runs. So that’s just the morning.”

3. She Does Drills

In order to prepare for her fights, Holm does a lot of drills. She shared her favorites in her Muscle and Fitness interview. “I do mitt work three to four times a week. I go back to either jujitsu or wrestling at night Monday through Thursday. I’m working out about four and five hours a day depending [on my schedule]. Sometimes it’s more drilling; sometimes it’s going hard. I usually am doing at least two to three hard workouts and the rest of the time it’s technical drilling.”

4. She Does Bodyweight Workouts

When it comes to her upper body, Holm likes to do bodyweight workouts. “I do some strength training, but most of what I do as far as arms is bodyweight,” she told Muscle and Fitness. “I’ll do pull-ups, pushups and dips. Of course with fighting, we’re constantly using our arms punching. In the clench you’re wrestling around with other people so they’re constantly being worked. I don’t ever use really heavy weights with my arms.”

5. She Doesn’t Compare Fights

Holm shared how she approaches fights in an interview with Strong Fitness Magazine. “Every fight is different, every fighter is different, every training camp is different. So I try not to compare because sometimes that could set you up for a mental breakdown if you’re thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this isn’t going like it did before!’ I just try to take each day and learn from what I did wrong, try to retain what I did right, keep it one day at a time. Our whole training camp and how overwhelming it is can be too much to handle, so I just take it one day at a time.”

Professional boxer and MMA star Holly Holm took a break from her incredibly intense training regimen to enjoy the sun, sea, and sand on a trip to beautiful Santa Barbara, California. Holm, 41, shared a picture of herself soaking up the sun on a boat, wearing a white one-piece swimsuit with shorts and dark sunglasses. The athlete looked serene and calm, a world away from her usual high-energy competition attitude. “Legend/ one of the greatest female fighters ever,” a fan commented. Here’s exactly what Holm does to earn that accolade.

1. Sculpted Arms

Holm says she relies on body weight to get her powerfully sculpted arms. “I do some strength training but most of what I do as far as arms is bodyweight,” she says. “I’ll do pull-ups, pushups and dips. Of course with fighting, we’re constantly using our arms punching. In the clench you’re wrestling around with other people so they’re constantly being worked. I don’t ever use really heavy weights with my arms.”

2. Strength Training Workouts

Holm shares videos of her workouts on social media. “‘What do you do for strength training?’ Is always a common question,” she says. “I do a variety of many different workouts. A big majority of them are just using body weight. Pull ups being something I do frequently... we change them up... some on the rings, some on the bar, some chin ups, wide grip, narrow grip, some kipping some strict, some with a slow tempo, some explosive and fast. Today we finished with strict pull ups focusing on bringing the bar to my chest instead of just getting the chin to the bar. Thank you @teamturningpoint for your constant push.”

3. Protein-Powered Diet

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Holm’s enjoys a healthy diet with a strong focus on quality protein. “[For breakfast] I eat a bit of protein (eggs, protein shake, protein bar, chicken, beef) and some almond butter in the morning,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll make a mixture of coconut milk, chia seeds, hemp seeds and flax seeds to eat as well. It depends on the morning. Lunch usually consists of chicken breast over salad with light dressing. I love a good salad with greens and nuts, maybe some berries as well. [Dinner is] any kind of protein (beef patty, lean pork loin, grilled fish, grilled chicken) and some kind of side with it, like salad or asparagus or Brussels sprouts. Sometimes I dice up sweet potatoes and bake them with a bit of olive oil.”

4. Preparing For a Fight

Holm likes peace and quiet before a fight. “I just like to be in my own peace and quiet,” she says. “I don’t listen to music or have any music on in the locker room. I just focus and zone in. If I feel like I need music it’s because I’m needing the distraction and worked up too much. So I figure if I can’t focus long enough to think about the fight, maybe I shouldn’t be doing it anymore. I’m fine with my own peace and quiet.”

5. Importance of Confidence

Holm emphasizes how important confidence is for a fighter. “I think it’s good to have confidence in yourself with what you do in life,” she says. “You need to feel like you can accomplish things or else, how are you going to get there? If you don’t feel like you can do it, then how are you going to do it? You have to have confidence in yourself, but I definitely want to be very honest and real with myself at the same time. I’m trying to keep a good balance. I want to have confidence that I can accomplish these things. I don’t think there’s anything bad about it.”

Female martial artists are so much more than performers in a fighting ring, and definitely more than just a pretty face. These women are training like athletes, and practice the skill and discipline needed to win. Vanity often goes out the window—just ask Ronda Rousey. “I can’t walk into a fight thinking, ‘Oh I need to save my moneymaker.’ I don’t care if I cut my face; I’m in there to win. You can’t walk in there scared of what might happen to you. I walk in there focused on what I have to do,” she says. So how exactly do these superstars train? Here’s how Valentina Shevchenko, Cris Cyborg, and 18 other fighters approach battle and wellness.

1. Felice Herrig

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American kickboxer Felice Herrig follows a healthy diet that encourages fat loss and muscle growth. “I’ve always been really healthy and I’ve done it all,” she says. “I was a raw foodist for about 1 year and then a vegetarian for 2-3. Right now I've been working with a really well known and sought after nutritionist Fakhri Mubarak and all my meals are prepared for me by a company called Fuel-up. So everything is perfectly proportioned out for me. I’m not going to go into complete specifics about my diet because that's my little secret. But my Fakhri has based my current diet on my blood work and on getting me to the lowest weight I can be with the most amount of muscle and strength as possible, with a specific ratio of carbs, proteins and fats.”

2. Ronda Rousey

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Ronda Rousey doesn’t count calories and is very careful about where her meat and dairy is sourced. “I usually eat carbs on alternating days,” she says. “So it will usually be rice or potatoes or something like that. Pretty much I just eat until I’m full. Since I don’t eat all day my stomach has shrunk so I get full fast. So I don’t count calories at all. If I have red meat it must be ‘Grass-Finished beef’ not ‘Grass Fed.’ Grass Fed could be that they fed the cow grass ONE DAY and then fed it corn for the rest of its life – and that qualifies it to be ‘Grass Fed’. Grass-Finished means it has to eat grass for at least 80 percent of its lifetime … so it has to be very high quality. I also try to eat everything organic, even when I eat dairy.”

3. Alexa Grasso

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Alexa Grasso believes all women should learn to fight. “I saw the MMA belt that I had won, how responsible I became, the discipline I acquired, the combinations that I connected, that security I had when I tried to try it and that desire to want to do it again but much better,” she says. “A high impact sport like this is what changed my life. And I know that although it is a relatively new sport, all women should practice it. It feels like the closest thing to what it would be like to fight for your life, so that you can react correctly in dangerous situations.”

4. Valentina Shevchenko

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UFC and MMA star Valentina Shevchenko trains 2-3 hours every day. "Fighters, they have to know how to box, have to know how to kick, how to wrestle, how to grapple, everything," she says. "They have to do it, not just okay, they have to do it in perfection. For me, martial arts, it's kind of [the] same as religion, because you have to believe in what you are doing and your temple is your dream.”

5. Cris Cyborg

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MMA champion Cris Cyborg says mental preparation is a big part of her training. “I believe that everything happens for a reason, so putting in the work as well just helps you in the process,” she says. “When I step into the ring, I know that I have done everything in my power to be prepared for the fight, and I give it my all. If I don’t happen to win, that’s ok too. I will see where I need to improve and continue to train on that until I am better at it, and so I am stronger for the next challenge.”

6. Cynthia Rothrock

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Veteran martial arts star Cynthia Rothrock says beginners should be prepared to put the work in if they want to succeed. “When you take a martial art, try to learn the true art and keep the tradition," she says. “Each style has something different to offer. I started at 13 years old. I had some friends in tang soo do, so I gave it a try. When I was younger, I tried everything — piano, music lessons, other sports — but the martial arts were the first thing I really stuck with… I always get nervous. It is sort of a nervous energy starting the form — but then I tune right in."

7. Gina Carano

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MMA star and actress Gina Carano’s favorite healthy meal is chicken and couscous with green beans. “When I’m home, I cook a lot of chicken or fish and wheat pasta,” she says. “When I was training to fight, literally all I ate was vegetables and white meat, then when I was done training, I’d go the complete opposite direction. I’m a lot more balanced now, and I feel a lot healthier. To be healthy and happy. If you take care of yourself you can take care of the people around you. We take health for granted.”

8. Carla Esparza

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Carla Esparza has a scientific approach to her training and diet, and is always thoroughly prepared. “I think anyone’s perfect scenario is like, boom, you walk out, one punch, knockout,” she says. “For me, I’d definitely like a chance to display all the work that I’ve been doing. I’ve been doing a lot of work in jiu jitsu, I’ve been sharpening up my striking, so I’m hoping that I can really display that, and of course, a first-round finish would be great, but just hand up. That’s the goal.”

9. Jeeja Yanin

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Jeeja Yanin has a dance background, and still practices for training. “I started when I was very young,” she says. “I took ballet for about eight years, and then went into Taekwondo, and I reached my second dan black belt at age thirteen. As of now, my son hasn’t quite gotten into martial arts yet, but I am encouraging him! I train for around two hours a day, and it’s a mix of martial arts and flexibility. I also like dance, as well, as it keeps you on your toes.”

10. Holly Holm

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Holly Holm keeps her meals light on a fight day. “[I have a] light protein, maybe fish or chicken. I always have sweet potatoes,” she says. “I might have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I might have trail mix. I like to have light proteins and good carbs. I might have some fruits. I don’t want to only do fruit because the sugar doesn’t last with you as long. I feel good when I have a good sweet potato, and nut butters and honey. I snack on stuff the whole time I’m in the locker room. I don’t want to be too full and have too much at one time, so I’ll eat little bites here and there, all the way up until about 30 to 45 minutes before the fight.”

11. Paige VanZant

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Paige VanZant is careful about her diet when she is training. “Dieting is a huge part of being any sort of professional athlete,” she says. “My husband and I love cooking and we really enjoy making healthy meals together. I like to think of myself as a chef and have competed on many cooking shows. We of course have our occasional cheat day here and there. But once we have a flight scheduled it’s down to business. Then after we fight we go a little bit crazy and eat everything in sight.”

12. Miesha Tate

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Miesha Tate swears by red meat for energy. “I like to eat red meat—it helps me keep my iron levels up,” she says. “I also eat a lot of veggies. If you’re low on calories or missing something in your diet, you can definitely feel it when you’re pushing your body to the limits. Whatever you put into your body is what you’re going to get out of it.”

13. Joanne Calderwood

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Joanne Calderwood supports her diet and training with supplements. “[For lunch] I will have Thorne’s Catalyte during training and take cod liver at lunch, which is usually the Trifecta special of the day,” she says. “Every day I do pads and our MMA pro practice. Monday, Wednesday, Friday in the afternoons I have strength and conditioning training. Saturday, I do cardio and focus on recovery. I usually have a nice meal at home – something I make in the slow cooker, usually chicken. I take a zinc supplement before bed and try to make sure I’m in bed and reading a book by 10 p.m. to get enough sleep and to wind down.”

14. Rose Namajunas

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Rose Namajunas believes in making her own food as much as possible. "You know, something like bread,” she says. “If you do it from scratch you have to make your own starter culture. That takes a week by itself. Then you have to add more flour and water to it over time. That takes another two weeks. So you shouldn't be eating bread every day. If you have a garden, you got tomatoes which we grew in the last camp. You could just eat those real easy because you can just pick it if you need it."

15. Jessica Andrade

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Jessica Andrade loves running as part of her training. “I get a rush when I’m fighting, but it was very unusual – I started to run when I moved down a weight class and got a runner’s high for the very first time,” she says. “I felt like a completely different person. Now I run every single day. It clears my head. I was so surprised how much just actual running helped my life and my well-being.”

16. Jessica Eye

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Jessica Eye believes state of mind is just as important as being physically prepared. “It all starts with the way that you think,” she says. “Your eyes wake up and your brain kicks in. Right now, because I feel like I’m in a much better mental state, my weight has been great. My training has been great. I’m smiling every day. I’m doing things I used to do that made me happy, and it makes my coaches happy. When I see them smile, it gives me the power to want to keep going and keep striving.”

17. Bruna Vargas

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Bruna Vargas used her down time to keep training and improving her skills. "I was stuck in a contract with XFC for two years, waiting for a fight that never came," she says. "It was complicated because I wanted and needed to fight, but had to wait. But I kept training, working on the things I needed to improve, like jiu-jitsu, and waited for a call. I also competed in jiu-jitsu and boxing in those two years away from MMA."

18. Diana Lee Inosanto

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Bruce Lee’s goddaughter Diana Lee Inosanto says Filipino martial arts is the bread and butter of what she does. “It was my heritage, it was my culture,” she says. “So as a little girl, my father said not only do I want you to learn how to defend yourself as a woman, or as a little girl at the time, but I also just want you to be proud and know your heritage, know your culture.”

19. Tatiana Suarez

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Tatiana Suarez is diligent about her diet and hydration. “I stay on a strict diet, and I train four to six hours a day,” she says. “I always make sure I’m fully hydrated before going into a practice. My favorite drink is BODYARMOR LYTE because it has electrolytes, is high in potassium and is low in sugar and calories, and nutrition and hydration is something that's important in fighting.”

20. Jinh Yu Frey

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Jinh Yu Frey stays focused on her health and training even when she isn’t fighting. “When I'm not fighting I [train] 4 times a week,” she says. “I’ll go to the classes at my jiu jitsu gym and do like 40 minutes of rolling and technique work but then I will also do wrestling or situational drills in the cage. A lot of times there’s fights about to happen so I'm always helping them get ready in the cage and do rounds with them. I always eat healthy, so I always try and keep lean—I don’t have a lot to lose but I do extra cardio and cut out dairy products and cheese which are high in fat, and cut down on portions too.”

MMA fighters aren’t just performers; they train incredibly hard for their work, and follow strict diets to stay strong and ready for a fight. “To be successful in MMA you have to absolutely love it,” says Paige VanZant. “And know that if fighting is in your heart that means it’s already a part of you. It runs through your veins. Being a female and a male-dominated sport can be very hard. The biggest lessons that I have learned throughout my years in fighting is, know your worth, listen to your gut feeling and never let anybody tell you what you can or cannot do.” So what does it take to be a UFC star? Here’s how 20 of the most impressive female MMA fighters stay fighting fit and camera-ready.

1. Ronda Rousey

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Ronda Rousey intermittent fasts and tries to follow a clean diet. “[My diet is] a kind of a combination of The Paleo and The Warrior diet,” she says. “I pretty much eat one meal a day – which takes place at night. I usually eat between 4 and 10 (p.m.). As far as supplements go, I don’t take anything that is made in a lab. If it was on earth 10,000 years ago then I will eat it. There is one exception to all of this each day: I get to have coffee every morning. That’s the only thing I really fudge on… There weren’t really hunger pains when I switched to the diet. You’re just used to eating, you’re sitting around and you’re bored, sometimes you just want to eat to keep yourself occupied. But as long as I’m busy – and I’m busy a lot these days so I’m run ragged all day long – I just pretty much need coffee and I’m cool.”

2. Holly Holm

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Holly Holm’s training is not for the faint of heart. “Monday through Friday every morning we have class and it’s intense,” she says. “They’re pretty hardcore workouts. Monday there’s MMA sparring, Tuesday is sparring, Wednesday is wrestling, Thursday is MMA day, Friday is wrestling, and Saturday I do sprint runs. So that’s just the morning. Other than that I run five days a week with Saturday’s sprint run being one of them. Monday through Friday four out of the five days I’m running distance as well. I do mitt work three to four times a week. I go back to either jujitsu or wrestling at night Monday through Thursday. I’m working out about four and five hours a day depending [on my schedule].”

3. Jessica Eye

Jessica Eye focuses on inner as well as outer health. “We do the exercising with our body and do the diet, but sometimes, we forget to exercise our mind and make ourselves better that way and think we have it all figured out,” she says. “This time, I was able to exercise myself in a way that I have never been exercised before, so it’s allowed me to feel more confident in my abilities, just like I did when I first started.”

4. Felice Herrig

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Felice Herrig was given the nickname “Lil Bulldog” for good reason. “I did start off as a kickboxer 11 years ago and racked up many kickboxing titles as an amateur and pro but I have evolved so much throughout the years,” she says. “Especially when I started training at Team Curran 5 years ago. They’ve gotten my ground game up as far as the jiu jitsu goes and also with my wrestling as well. I train hard and I’m determined. For me it’s always been important to become a well rounded fighter and I am comfortable on the ground and on the feet… If I put together the tools I have developed I’m gonna be hard for anyone to handle.”

5. Jessica Andrade

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Jessica Andrade overhauled her diet for training. "I started eating healthier, more salad, sweet potato and chicken, and I’m feeling stronger than I was before," she says. "I train with the same people I used to train before, and I’m using less strength against them. It was weird. I even asked them if they stopped working out because I felt stronger against bigger training partners. I used to eat a lot of pasta and cookies, things like that. I really eat a lot. I’d eat everything if you let me.”

6. Paige VanZant

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Paige VanZant works out every day, rain or shine. “I of course have a very strict workout regimen,” she says. “I’m in the gym every day twice a day. Since I have switched over to professional boxing my schedule comprises of boxing every day sometimes twice a day. And strength and conditioning three days a week. I do all of my training at American Top Team, a world renowned MMA and combat academy.”

7. Bethe Correia

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Bethe Correia knows how important it is to take time off from training for healing. “An eye injury is much more serious than fighting with an injured arm,” she says. “It could force retirement. I don’t wish to retire so early. I want to continue fighting for many years to come, so I followed all instructions to the letter. Vision is serious business, and as soon as the doctor gave me clearance, I let the UFC know.”

8. Rose Namajunas

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Rose Namajunas sticks to whole foods cooked at home as much as she can. "I try and make everything homemade as possible,” she says. “So that's kind of my thing. I'm never 'anti' anything, except for lots of sugar and things that are obviously bad for you. The more process that something takes in order to make from scratch, I think the less you should eat it… I try not to be too scientific with stuff. Whatever makes you feel good I think is what you should eat. I don't like sweets or anything like that. My parents are Lithuanian refugees. We grew up eating sauerkraut and potatoes. You know, just real Eastern European type stuff. I never really liked candy or anything like that. It's always been a lifestyle for me and not like I'm on this diet like this thing I have to do."

9. Carla Esparza

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Carla Esparza ups her protein when she wants to build more muscle. “I’ve been wanting a fight for a long time, so I’ve been training super hard,” she says. “I’ve been changing a lot of things in my nutrition, in my supplementation, so I feel like I’m excited to show a kind of newer, bigger, stronger, better version of me… I was just preparing myself using the UFC Performance Institute, using Clint (STAT) for nutrition, just adding a lot of protein into my diet, adding supplements, and just doing all these things to kind of ensure that I was going to be as strong as I could possibly be.”

10. Miesha Tate

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For Miesha Tate, being active is not just work but pleasure. “I’m an outdoorsy person. I love being in the water, whether it’s on a boat or just relaxing, and I love inner tubing. I also love camping or just being in the sun, enjoying life!” she says. “I’ve learned firsthand that training smarter, not harder, is just better. Doing this sport for so long, I know my body really well. I’ve had fights where I have definitely overtrained and didn’t give myself enough rest between fights or during training camp. I typically use a heart-rate monitor to track my recovery each morning to see where I’m at, and if it’s a day to push really hard or take it a little lighter. I also use it when I’m sparring to make sure my heart rate’s getting up high enough. After workouts, I’ll often take an ice bath to speed recovery.”

11. Joanne Calderwood

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Joanne Calderwood never skips breakfast before she trains. “I always have my coffee first, and then I eat two eggs, half an avocado, and two slices of bread,” she says. “But before eating, I take my iron, then after breakfast, I take Vitamin C, Beta-Alanine, a B Complex, and a magnesium glycinate powder. I try to get that all in before my 30-minute stretch session. Afterward, I move to mobility, then a pad practice, and then a pro practice with some sparring and live situation type fighting.”

12. Cat Zingano

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Cat Zingano is passionate about becoming a better fighter through her training. “I worked with some wrestling coaches that I grew up with and we wrestled on the national circuit together,” she says. “Lester Bowling, he's Georges St. Pierre's wrestling coach and I've been working with him for years. For jiu-jitsu and judo, I work at a great school in Denver and I did a tournament at the Olympic training center and won that… I think I'm better at this sport than I was at any other sport. It's my calling and I've heard from many people that this was meant for me and I'm excited for this to take off for me and to put on the best fights I possibly can.”

13. Michelle Waterson

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Michelle Waterson trains by shadow boxing and tabata workouts. “I think it is important to drill over and over again until you are sick of drilling, then drill some more,” she says. “I also like shadow boxing which is like fighting an imaginary opponent. Shadow boxing allows you to fix your mistakes and make your movement smooth so that it becomes second nature. Doing bag work is also a good workout routine. It allows me to work on my power and footwork. One of my favorite things to do to improve my stamina are tabatas. 20 seconds high intensity, 10 seconds rest, seven times, then rest for one min in between sets. Do it three times. This is a very short but very effective way to build your explosive muscles.”

14. Melissa Sophia Karagianis

Melissa Sophia Karagianis trains other fighters, and loves her work. “I run the Warrior Women’s Fit Program,” she says. “It’s out of Kingsway Boxing at their high-performance location. I’ve been running it now for about a year. It’s a mixed-martial arts-inspired workout Bootcamp. So it’s growing and it’s an awesome bunch of ladies that I train.”

15. Bruna Ellen

Bruna Ellen says she thrives under pressure. "I competed overseas before, and I know how it’s like to fight with the crowd booing you and all that, and that kind of helps me," she says. "The crowd was booing me in Turkey, and cheering a lot when my opponent entered the gymnasium. This pressure actually helps me, to silence the crowd. I know how it’s like. I react well under pressure, and I’m mentally prepared."

16. Claudia Gadelha

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Claudia Gadelha starts every day with meditation before her training schedule kicks in. “I love my breakfast, so I cook a very nice Brazilian breakfast every morning to be nourished for my hardest session, which is always in the a.m.,” she says. “I love waking up to a nice cardio session, so even on my rest days, I wake up and go for a nice run or a high intensity session. I work out two to three times a day. Usually a strength and conditioning session and two technical sessions.”

17. Bruna Vargas

Bruna Vargas wants to be known for her skill as much as her looks. "It would be hypocritical to say that beauty doesn’t help, but I believe that it’s not only that," she says. "I fight Muay Thai for 10 years, I’m 2-0 in MMA, and I’m sure that I’ll show in this fight that they didn’t sign me only because I’m beautiful. I’m going there to fight, not for a fashion show."

18. Alexandra Albu

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Alexandra Albu loves CrossFit and running to stay in shape. “I wake up, eat my breakfast and after that I run like the wind to a training session,” she says. “After training I go to lectures. Next there is work as a CrossFit instructor and after that I have a jog planned, then maybe I can get some rest. I’m always nervous before I compete. There are always chills before I enter the cage, but when I’m in, when I can see people yelling, rooting for me, all that nervousness goes away and it's only fun after that.”

19. Mackenzie Dern

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Mackenzie Dern is trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and it’s still a major part of her exercise routine. “In the afternoon, I go to my dad’s BJJ academy and ​teach classes and get my BJJ training in there,” she says. “Wednesdays and Saturdays consist of sparring rounds at The MMA Lab. I keep to a strict diet when I’m training for a competition, but I love sweets like candy and pies."

20. Jinh Yu Frey

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Jinh Yu Frey swears by a healthy lifestyle with good habits. “I try and stay in pretty good shape all the time, but about four weeks before a fight I really start sharpening up my skills and with these title fights there are like twenty five minutes, it gets me time to get my cardio to where I need to be,” she says. “I don’t eat processed foods and I try to stick to organic and as close to raw as I can. Mornings I do usually eat oats with chia and hemp seed and honey. After that it’s lots of legumes, nuts, and vegetables. I really don’t eat much meat. Mostly vegetables and quinoa, especially during a fight camp.”