‘The Lioness’ is returning to the Octagon but her decision to come back isn’t only so that she can add another chapter to her legendary career.
At UFC 289, Amanda Nunes rode off into the sunset after successfully defending her bantamweight title and announcing her retirement inside the Octagon.
Stepping away was on the mind of the Brazilian star for some time but her shock loss and subsequent rematch with Julianna Pena ended up extending her career by several years.
With Pena now set to defend the title against Kayla Harrison in the co-main event of UFC 316, Nunes has already confirmed that she will be returning in order to face the winner.
As a Hall of Fame inductee for the class of 2024, the 36-year-old’s legacy is already assured but her decision to make the walk one more time wasn’t solely motivated by the prospect of facing Pena or Harrison later this year.
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Amanda Nunes opens about the mental struggles that led to her returning to the UFC
It’s a recurring theme in MMA that retirements don’t tend to last too long and that’s because for many fighters, it’s hard to transition out of the life that you’ve had to completely dedicated yourself to for so long.
Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has spoken openly in the past about how he has fallen into some difficult places when he doesn’t have a fight booked because having a training camp and specific goal to focus on keeps him moving forward.
Amanda Nunes recently expressed a similar sentiment during an appearance on the UFC Unfiltered podcast after confirming her comeback plans at UFC 314 in Miami.
2024 was the first full calendar year where she didn’t competed in a professional MMA bout since 2007 which was the year before she made her pro debut.
From 2008 to 2023, the former two-weight world champion racked up 28-fights under her belt, including 12 consecutive UFC title fights.
As a result, Nunes revealed that her plans to kick back and relax after announcing her retirement didn’t go how she expected them to.
‘The Lioness’ said that having a goal to work towards was the kind of direction she needed to help deal with some of the mental battles that she has faced since leaving her gloves inside the Octagon at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
“I literally thought I’d be able to maybe do something else or maybe chill at home, enjoy, travel, all these things but after a year, everything started getting so bad. I started having anxiety. I started like not wanting to be here. When I go to Brazil, I always have like a hard time to, in everything. I was without a schedule and my life without schedule is literally like I can’t so after a year, I literally like lose it.
“I needed to get back in, I needed to do something. I needed training but I started training, eat clean, everything, but for what? I don’t have a goal. So I can’t train and not have a goal in my life so I still feel good, I don’t have any injuries, my muscle memory is still on point… If I still have it, what am I waiting for?”
Either outcome at UFC 316 would make for a big fight with Amanda Nunes
Regardless of who leaves UFC 316 with the bantamweight title, it’ll make for a big showdown for Amanda Nunes’ return to the Octagon.
‘The Lioness’ has history with both women having gone 1-1 in her back-to-back fights with Julianna Pena shortly before she retired.
After suffering a shock defeat at UFC 269, Nunes avenged her loss to Pena by beating her in dominant fashion at UFC 277 to reclaim the belt.
As for Kayla Harrison, the former PFL star’s presence at American Top Team was part of the reason why Nunes left the Florida gym to work with a smaller camp.
A matchup between them has been a dream super fight for many years but we’re now just one result away from it taking place.