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Talks about Amanda Nunes’ retirement swirled ahead of her UFC 289 bantamweight title defense against Irene Aldana. ‘The Lioness’ had been the consensus women’s MMA GOAT for years, and many feel she has nothing left to accomplish.
After once again coming out on top in dominant fashion, Nunes officially called it a career.
Amanda Nunes announces her retirement
As it is customary in every Amanda Nunes fight, fans were treated to a commanding performance on Saturday night. The proud Brazilian was a few steps ahead the entire time, and even more so when she turned the heat up in the middle rounds.
Nunes won the bout via a wide-margined unanimous decision and after the results were announced, she immediately demanded for a pair of scissors to cut off her gloves and hand wraps.
“Today, if you guys look around, I just tied with Anderson Silva in defending the belt. Tonight’s a perfect night to retire, and live happy forever,” she told Daniel Cormier in her Octagon interview.
Amanda Nunes explains her decision to retire
At 35 years young, Amanda Nunes could fight on if she wanted to. But having ran through the opposition for the good part of the last seven years, she finally decided to give in to her family’s calls for her to take a step back.
“My mom had been asking me so much to do this (retire) for so long. She cannot take anymore. My family as well, Nina, she’s been around so much with me my whole career. We’ve been in this road for so long.
“So I decided right now. I’m still young to enjoy everything that I made. I’m gonna travel a little bit with my family. I got to spend time with my family in Brazil, as well. I left them so young to chase this dream.”
Julianna Peña slams Amanda Nunes for retiring
Meanwhile, a rival isn’t happy about these recent developments. Former champion Julianna Peña was at cageside to see it all unfold, and she has some words for the newly-retired Nunes.
“The Venezuelan Vixen” claimed responsibility for making Nunes ‘relevant again,” as she believes their UFC 269 clash brought clout to the women’s double champ.
“Everybody always has that one person that’s just stuck in their butt and that’s me for Amanda. I know that she knows that.
“I think at the end of the day she’s probably really thankful for me making her relevant again when I beat her because no one really cared about Amanda Nunes because she was just stomping everybody out and knocking them out in the first round,” Peña said in an interview before she was forced off UFC 289 due to injury.
Peña was rooting hard for Amanda Nunes to come out on top as she was counting on a trilogy to happen. But at this point, she will just have to channel all that energy towards someone else.
Amanda Nunes’s illustrious career
It’s hard not to be in awe of Nunes’ accomplishments, even just by looking at her record. She managed to beat seven former UFC champions, one of whom was once deemed to be the unstoppable all-time great of women’s MMA at the time.
Nunes has stoppages over five UFC champions Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Miesha Tate, Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie, and decisions over Julianna Pena and long time flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko twice. Apart from those, she also has title defenses over two Invicta FC champions in Megan Anderson and Felicia Spencer.
After a slight setback with the loss to Peña at UFC 269 in 2021, Nunes bounced back big and reclaimed the women’s 135 pound title last July. Her current record stands at 23-5. She has 11 UFC title wins in two divisions.
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