20 Amazing Bodies of Female MMA Fighters

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.”

Professional wrestler Valerie Loureda encouraged fans to watch both UFC and WWE NXT Great American Bash 2023 via a social media update. Loureda, 25, shared a video of herself looking fit and beautiful in an aquamarine bikini with matching coverup, telling fans who her picks are for the fights. “I’ve been working hard to bring a different touch to WWE that they’re never seen before,” she explained in the video. How does she stay so fit? Read on to see 5 ways Loureda stays in shape and the photos that prove they work.

1. Proud of Her Roots

Loureda is proud and confident about her fighting skills. “I’m an amazing wrestler,” she says. “Cuban wrestling is very different, and I was lucky enough to be taught wrestling by Yoel Romero and Alexis Villa and Gustavito (Balart), a lot of Olympic wrestlers, so they really taught me that Cuban wrestling, and I’m gonna take it into the cage. I just haven’t been given a chance to show it because I’m playing my game, but the moment I get the opportunity to show it, people are gonna be shocked by my wrestling skills.”

2. Taekwondo Background

Loureda grew up doing taekwondo, which set the tone for her future career as a fighter. “I never in my life thought for one second this is eventually what I would do,” she says. “I always had the vision of the Olympic dream [in taekwondo] in my mind, but at some point… that changed, and I saw MMA on TV. I saw the way it was blowing up, and people were falling in love with it. I said, ‘Wow, I can do that. I could fight like that. I could beat those girls, and I could change the world one day with that platform and all their viewers.’ So I was very excited about MMA, and that’s when it was born for me.”

3. Wrestling Training

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Loureda says switching from MMA to wrestling was no joke. “It’s extremely tough. For me, it’s actually harder than MMA,” she says. “My first bump, I just knew I could do it. I had this feeling in my gut and my first bump, hitting the ropes, I just fell in love with it and I knew I could do it. It’s tough, it’s a hard transition, it’s different than what I’m used to, but if you can rewire your brain and change your mentality and realize what this is and how to be the best at it, you can be successful. I was with coach (Norman) Smiley the whole time and he was amazing and taught me so much. He stayed in an open ring after for like two hours and we worked and he taught me stuff and taught me different things that would work with my style.”

4. Building Muscle

Loureda is careful to build muscle rather than lose weight as a result of MMA/wrestling training. “I might not be sparring as much, but I’m doing physical training (and) conditioning,” she says. “I lost a lot of weight after ‘Exatlon,’ and in these times, I’ve used time to concentrate on what I want to do with my life. While many are eating and gaining weight at home, I’ve been working to be on weight and be ready for this fight. So I haven’t had many partners for this training camp, but I’m very confident in my level and the years of training in martial arts.”

5. Beautiful and Strong

Loureda has neither time nor patience for those who criticize female athletes for bikini pictures. “If women do it, it’s being seen as doing it for social media and doing it to be an object for men and marketing. And that’s not the case,” she says. “It’s not for any man, it’s for us as women showing we can be badass and beautiful and strong, and we could still be animals in the cage and know how to defend ourselves.”

In the world of professional female boxing, these 20 remarkable athletes stand out not only for their prowess in the ring but also for their dedication to maintaining incredible bodies. From Olympic champions to rising stars, these boxers share insights into their training routines, diets, and the mental fortitude that drives them. Learn how Claressa Shields listens to her body, Amanda Serrano's strength and conditioning regimen, Jessica McCaskill's daily grind, and the unique strategies that keep these fighters at the top of their game. Discover the stories of resilience and determination that fuel these amazing bodies, inspiring a new generation of athletes.

1. Claressa Shields

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Claressa Shields tells Muscle and Fitness that her workouts are dependent on how she feels and what she’s done that day. “Having a routine is a great thing for any athlete, but sometimes adding something new to a routine or just giving yourself a break is necessary. If you’re training several times a day all week, by Friday, your body will wear down. I think that messes with some people when they’re unable to finish out the week. When my body says, ‘Hey, chill out, Claressa,’ I’m more than willing to chill out and give my body a rest or cut a workout short.”

2. Amanda Serrano

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Amanda Serrano shared her daily routine with Muscle and Fitness, including her workout routine. “I arrive back at the gym for my strength and conditioning training which includes: Squats, bench presses, military presses, barbell rows, pulldowns, barbell/dumbbell curls, triceps extensions, calf Raises. And on alternate days, I do my calisthenics (4 sets of pullups, pushups, chin-ups, and dips) back-to-back.”

3. Jessica McCaskill

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Jessica McCaskill shared her training routine in an interview with Front Proof Media. “We have strength and conditioning four times a week; we have sparring three times a week, just regular cardio every day, multiple times per day. I’m up at about 3:30 every weekday just to make sure I’m getting all of my workouts in. I still have my 9-5 job, which is more like a 6 am to 3 pm job, so I have to work around different schedules and different things I have on my plate, and it just kind of helps me stay consistent.”

4. Katie Taylor

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Katie Taylor likes to run to stay in shape. She shared her process in an interview with Sky Sports. “I don't really have a set distance. It changes from session to session. It could be maybe a sprint session, a hill session, or we could be running up mountains. A lot of hill runs actually, it's so important that your legs are strong. I train in Connecticut, so there's a lot of mountains there, and even the road ones are very hilly at times. That's probably my worst kind of session. I absolutely hate running sessions, but it's part and parcel, and those are the sessions that make the difference.”

5. Mikaela Mayer

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Mikaela Mayer shared how she stays motivated in an interview with Men’s Journal. “Sometimes I wake up sore, tired, and I don’t feel like sparring with a 175-pound dude who’s going to hit me,” she says. “But I really need to make sure I’m pushing myself, that I’m going to be able to push through four rounds straight. One of my favorite quotes is that practice doesn’t make perfect—perfect practice makes perfect. It’s better to hit the bag perfectly for five rounds than to hit it for 20 rounds.”

6. Seniesa Estrada

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Seniesa Estrada shared her career goals in an interview with Athleisure Magazine. “In the sport, I just want to continue to elevate the sport of women’s boxing to be better. It won’t be easy for all female fighters, but all I can do is continue to accomplish my goals and for people to see me and recognize me so that they can be more open minded to watching women’s boxing and supporting other women in the sport. Of course, my goal is to win multiple titles in 3 different weight divisions – which is definitely something that I want.”

7. Natasha Jonas

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Natasha Jonas shared how she handles her nerves with Stylist.co. “Nerves are good, it just depends on how you control them,” she says. “Some people need to be nervous, but I’m lucky that I’m one of those people who’s laid back and calm. Some people get nervous and can’t cope with those nerves, so it affects how they perform. For me, every time I get in the ring it’s a big buzz. I love the feeling of competing, I love being in the ring and I love hearing the crowd cheering.”

8. Terri Harper

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Terri Harper shared her training process in an interview with Venum.com. “I’m training twice a day, Monday to Friday, once on a Saturday. Working on power, endurance, and conditioning. Now I’m carrying this extra weight… it has more of an effect on your body thank you’d think. The lactic levels in your body will be much higher, you’re putting a lot more demands on your body… so it’s really a question of focusing on conditioning and getting used to the greater demands on my body as well as keeping my strength, eating well, fueling properly – following a strict nutrition plan.”

9. Ewa Brodnicka

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Ewa Brodnicka does a lot of things to keep herself in shape. She likes to spend a lot of time outside. Brodnicka shared these photos on Instagram of herself on a hike. She captioned the post, “Contact with nature gives calmness and relaxation.” She also posted this video of herself swimming in a pool.

10. Chantelle Cameron

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Chantelle Cameron shared her daily routine with Lessons In Badassery. She says that she likes to workout first thing in the morning. “My first morning session might be a steady run around 8.30am on an empty stomach to kick-start the day. A steady run will vary from 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how I feel. Sometimes, [if I don’t run] I’ll train later instead, with my first session at around 10.30am. This might be a strength and conditioning session or maybe a sparring session.”

11. Marlen Esparza

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Marlen Esparza shared her typical diet with StyleCaster. She makes sure to eat healthy, and that includes what she snacks on. “I love Mango Chobani Greek yogurt, it’s one of my favorite snacks. Another snack that I pre-make is a special oatmeal, which is whole-grain steel-cut oats with cashew milk, powdered peanut butter, organic honey, and chia seeds, and I let it sit in the refrigerator overnight and eat it cold.”

12. Alycia Baumgardner

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Alycia Baumgardner broke down her workout routine with Muscle and Fitness. “We start with a 5:30 a.m. run. We’re doing 800 meters at the track. With where I’m at in camp, that’s probably about eight of those, which is tough. We go back home, relax, have breakfast, get back up at noon. That will be when the second workout is. If it’s a sparring day, I’m probably doing about eight to 10 rounds. After sparring, I’ll hit the bag, might do a cooldown run. After that, I go back home, relax. The third workout of the day could be swimming or a recovery workout. I’ll go to sleep after that and then do it again the next day.”

13. Heather Hardy

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Heather Hardy shared her training secrets in an interview with AMNY.com. “I’m either sparring or working to enhance my boxing skills with my head coach, Devon Cormack. We work on everything from proper punching form and execution to footwork. I have a few different trainers. Devon is in charge of everything boxing, inside the ring. I put in a minimum of two hours of training per day.”

14. Hannah Rankin

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Hannah Rankin talked about how she won the super welterweight world title to GymBox.com. “I went into the ring with the mindset of ‘I’m not leaving this room without the belt around my waist.’ ...I knew I’d won it, I knew it when it was getting called out, but you always have these horrible little moments where you think ‘what if it isn’t me?!’”

15. Shannon Courteney

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Shannon Courteney shared her typical diet in an interview with The Skinny Food Company. “Because of the amount of training I do, I have a high carb and protein diet. I have porridge, oats & water for breakfast, fish with veg or salad for lunch with rice, and then chicken & salad for dinner, and as a non guilty treat I’ll have one Skinny Food snack a day, for example, some Chocolate Crispies or Choco Drops.”

16. Kali Reis

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In an interview with the Philly Voice, Kali Reis shared how she processed her trauma. "It's taken awhile to like myself, oh, yeah, absolutely. I was ashamed about a lot of things that happened to me for years, and I didn't understand why. I was punishing myself for reasons I didn't know. I used to think there was a black cloud following me everywhere. But if I didn't go through all the things I did, I wouldn't be where I am. I can look myself in the face and be proud of the little 12-year-old girl still inside of me."

17. Kim Clavel

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Kim Clavel opened up about how she recovers from losing a fight to Yesica Nary Plata to The Montreal Gazette. “I believe in my promotion,” she said. “I was ready to fight a girl like Plata. Maybe it wasn’t my best night, but it’s ok and I have no regrets. I believe this happened to make me stronger and better.”

18. Nicola Adams

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Nicola Adams revealed her workout secrets in an interview with Glamour. “I workout five days a week, twice a day. I’ll either go for a run – usually no more than 3 miles – or do strength training, such as bench presses, squats, dead lifts, press ups, or pull ups. In the evening, I do a boxing session. On my days off I also enjoy bikram yoga as a way to stretch my body out and mentally recharge.”

19. Melissa St. Vil

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Melissa St. Vil revealed how she got into boxing in an interview with BoxingInsider.com. “I grew up in an abusive household and I found boxing,” St. Vil said. “I used boxing as an outlet to let go of my anger and I just stuck with it. It was a safe haven for me. I had my first fight when I was 17 and it just took off from there. I always liked fighting before boxing; I always got into street fights. Like I said before, boxing was a safe haven for me because I was going through a lot mentally and I just needed to get away and boxing was that for me.”

20. Lauryn Eagle

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Lauryn Eagle shared her workout secrets with Women Fitness. “I absolutely thrive on a regular planned exercise routine. Average 2 -3 hours a day, depending on my work commitments. I love running. Nothing beats putting on my music and pounding the roads and beaches of this beautiful city we all live in. I can sometimes run up to 10km a day. I also do lots of core strengthening with weight assisted crunches, lengthy sustained leg raises, and a punishing medicine ball workout. Skipping is a specialty and a great cardio and rhythm workout for me. My routine becomes way more intense leading into a fight with regular sparring and shoulder strengthening together with hundreds of squats and lunges. For a change I sometime do my whole workout in a swimming pool. The added water resistance really builds your strength.”

UFC Star Michelle Waterson-Gomez doesn’t need extra plates when she’s doing dips at the gym—something she makes fun of in an Instagram post. Waterson-Gomez, 38, shared a video of herself wearing black leggings and a gray t-shirt, doing an upper body workout with the text “When you got a built in weighted… 😅” written over the video. “It’s a struggle lol 😆,” she captioned the post. “Relatable 😅🫠,” a fan commented. Here’s how the MMA star trains, eats, and lives her fittest fighter life.

1. Drills, Boxing, and Tabata

Waterson-Gomez says when it comes to training, nothing is more important than drills. “I also like shadow boxing which is like fighting an imaginary opponent,” she told Women Fitness. “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.”

2. Training Diet

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Waterson-Gomez is strict with her diet when she’s training to fight. “I stay very hydrated, and eat very clean,” she told Women Fitness. “I try to stay away from processed, fried foods. Towards the end of my camp I stick to leaner meats and lots of green veggies.”

3. Fighting Beauty

Waterson-Gomez refuses to be boxed in by stereotypes of what a fighter should look like. "When I talk to people that have no idea that I fight, their first thing they say is, "Really, you fight? You don't look like a fighter,'" she told PeopleStyle. “I'm like, 'Well, what are fighters supposed to look like?' Some of us like to wear makeup, the red lips, the sexy black dress [too]."

4. Shaped by Martial Arts

Waterson-Gomez says martial arts has shaped who she is today and she couldn’t be more grateful. “It gave me a voice when I was too afraid to speak,” she told Numéro Netherlands. “It gave me the courage to take action when I was petrified with fear. There have been so many times throughout my life when Ifelt lost or stuck, and I leaned on my training as a martial artist to help guide me. Martial arts taught me to be humble, patient, persistent and driven.”

5. Love For Julie Kedzie and Holly Holm

Waterson-Gomez is inspired by and has great respect for fellow fighters Julie Kedzie and Holly Holm. “These ladies inspire me in more ways than one,” she told Women Fitness. “Outside of being amazing people, they carry the spirit of true warriors and I have learned so much from them. I have sweat, bled, cried and celebrated with these two and I would do anything for them.”

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.”