Amanda Nunes will get revenge, recaptures UFC ladies’s bantamweight title from Julianna Peña

DALLAS — Amanda Nunes vowed to make adjustments in her sport. She vowed to get her belt again after shockingly dropping it seven months in the past to Julianna Peña.

Within the rematch, Nunes did precisely what she promised. With a brand new southpaw stance on the ft and a renewed wrestling sport, Nunes defeated Peña by way of a dominant unanimous determination (50-45, 50-44, 50-43) in the primary occasion of UFC 277 on Saturday evening at American Airways Middle.

With the victory, Nunes, the best ladies’s fighter in MMA historical past, reclaimed the UFC ladies’s bantamweight title she misplaced to Peña at UFC 269 in December.

“The lioness, if they do not get the prey the primary time, I set the lure and I do know I might get it the second time,” Nunes stated in her postfight interview.

Nunes stated this combat was all about technique and that the important thing was her going southpaw. Then, when Peña obtained snug on the ft, Nunes stated she began to go for the takedowns.

“The principle factor was my southpaw,” Nunes stated. “I do know I used to be going to catch her with that tonight. I knew she was not going to have the ability to regulate to that. She’s not a striker. … She was so confused. I am not excellent but with my southpaw. I instructed my coach, ‘I’ll see how I really feel.’ I attempted tonight, and I felt good.”

Nunes dropped Peña with a test proper hook out of the southpaw stance a number of occasions within the early rounds. Because the combat wore on, Nunes started utilizing her wrestling to take Peña down time and again then lower her up from high place with slicing elbows.

Peña had a number of unhealthy cuts on her face after the fourth spherical. Nunes practically had a rear-naked choke end within the fifth, however Peña was extremely robust and fought it off.

Nunes had moments the place she might need been in a position to end the combat however maybe did not wish to make the error she did within the first combat, the place she obtained drained after making an attempt to complete Peña within the first spherical.

“Julianna is hard as nails,” UFC president Dana White stated. “Her will to win is second to none. She needed to win. As dominant as Amanda was, and he or she was dominant tonight — I do not suppose it was shut in any method, form or type; I assumed it was an entire shutout — she nonetheless regarded just a little gun-shy to me.

“She had Julianna damage many occasions, had her on loopy legs many occasions and by no means actually went in for the kill.”

After the primary combat, Nunes left her longtime fitness center, American Prime Crew, and moved into a non-public facility she has dubbed Lioness Studio. She skilled underneath coach Roger Krahl, who was in her nook for a few of her largest fights, just like the knockout of Ronda Rousey.

“One of the best factor I did was make my fitness center,” Nunes stated. “In my fitness center, I really feel like I am protected. I really feel like I can develop and evolve.”

Within the second spherical, Nunes knocked Peña down thrice, setting the report for many knockdowns in a spherical ever amongst ladies in UFC, in keeping with ESPN Stats & Data analysis. General, Nunes outlanded Peña 85-60 in important strikes and took Peña down six occasions in eight makes an attempt.

Nunes’ 15 UFC wins is essentially the most amongst ladies in promotion historical past. This was her 10th title combat win, essentially the most amongst ladies in UFC historical past and fifth finest general. Nunes is the primary girl in UFC to regain the bantamweight title after dropping it.

Saturday’s combat was the 13th rapid rematch ever in UFC after one fighter took the belt from one other. Saturday marked simply the third time in these situations {that a} fighter reclaimed the title. Randy Couture did it in opposition to Vitor Belfort in 2004, and Deiveson Figueiredo did it in January over Brandon Moreno.

Judges Douglas Crosby and Sal D’Amato every scored the second spherical 10-Eight for Nunes, whereas Crosby additionally scored the fifth 10-Eight for Nunes. The opposite choose, Jacob Montalvo, didn’t rating a 10-Eight in any spherical.

Coming in, ESPN had Nunes ranked No. 2 and Peña ranked No. four on its pound-for-pound ladies’s MMA listing. At bantamweight, Peña was No. 1 and Nunes was No. 2.

Nunes (22-5) was on a 12-fight successful streak earlier than dropping to Peña, with wins throughout that stretch over the likes of Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Miesha Tate and Holly Holm. The Brazilian slugger, who trains out of South Florida, can be the UFC ladies’s featherweight champion.

Nunes, 34, is the primary UFC fighter to defend two titles in separate weight courses concurrently, and he or she has seven title defenses throughout two divisions, essentially the most for a lady in UFC historical past.

Requested within the postfight information convention what can be subsequent for Nunes, White stated a 3rd combat with present UFC ladies’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko was “not a nasty thought.”

Peña (12-5) had gained two straight and 7 of her 9 earlier fights general coming in. The fighter, who was born in Washington state and trains out of Chicago, beat Nunes by way of second-round submission seven months in the past as a heavy underdog. Peña, 32, was the primary ladies’s Final Fighter event winner in 2013 and had been calling for a title shot for years earlier than really getting one.

She was transported to a hospital after the bout, and White stated Peña was going to see a plastic surgeon to cope with the cuts Nunes brought on on her face.

“Julianna has an enormous chunk lacking from her brow,” White stated, including that Peña “obtained fairly banged up tonight.”

Earlier than dropping the bantamweight title to Peña, Nunes had crushed each fighter who ever held the UFC ladies’s bantamweight or featherweight belts. She accomplished that feat once more with Saturday’s win.

“Tonight, it was confirmed that was a fortunate day for her,” Nunes stated of Peña’s title win in December. “If she wanted to turn out to be a champion like that, she had her time, and now it is over.”