Cris Cyborg stops Yana Kunitskaya in opening round

Yana Kunitskaya gave it everything she had at UFC 222. But it wasn’t nearly enough.

The Invicta bantamweight champion went up a weight class to challenge Cris Cyborg on short notice for the UFC featherweight championship Saturday night.

But after Kunitskaya found early success, Cyborg proved once again why she’s considered by so many the greatest women’s fighter of all-time. Cyborg turned up the heat after an awkward start and earned the knockout victory. The time of the stoppage at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was 3:25 of the opening round.

The bout was put together on three weeks’ notice, as the show needed a new main event when Max Holloway had to drop out of the original main event against Frankie Edgar.

“I train all the time and I take the fight Chute Boxe style on three weeks’ notice,” Cyborg said. “Anytime, anywhere, anybody.”

Kunitskaya (10-4, 1 NC) showed she was game early on by shaking off Cyborg’s first big flurry of the bout and turning it into a single-leg takedown. She scored a second takedown before Cyborg managed to regain her bearings.

From there, Cyborg started opening up, using a push kick followed by an overhand right to drop Kunitskaya. From there she rained down punches into it was waved off.

With the victory, Cyborg improved to 20-1 (1 NC). It was her 18th career KO/TKO win and her 10th straight win since a 2011 no-contest.

After the bout, she had a message for bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, who has called Cyborg out.

“Now I wait for Amanda, Amanda called me out,” Cyborg said. “I know Brazil against Brazil is sad, but she called me out, when you call Cyborg out you have to handle that.”