Amanda Nunes was not willing to retire following her loss to Julianna Peña.
In many circles, Amanda Nunes is regarded as the greatest female mixed martial artist of all time. She is on the precipice of defending her bantamweight title once again at UFC 289 against Irene Aldana. Aldana was not the first choice however for this title defense, Nunes was originally slated to face Julianna Peña for a third time however Peña suffered an injury and was forced out of the fight. Nunes is happy to have a new opponent in Aldana but knows it is a tough fight for her.
Nunes won the UFC women’s bantamweight championship back in 2016. She then went on to defend the title five times before losing to Peña in December 2021. Nunes continue to hold the featherweight title at that time but they were rumors that she would perhaps retire. Now she’s explaining why she didn’t retire at that time and it has a lot to do with her feeling towards Peña.
Amanda Nunes could not bare to leave the UFC belt with Julianna Peña
Nunes suffered her first loss in over seven years when she was submitted by Peña at UFC 269. It would’ve been easy for her to walk away at that time since she has done all more than anyone else has done in that division. However, leaving her belt with Peña was too much for her to handle.
“She’s so bad I would never leave my belt with her at all,” she said to Daniel Cormier on YouTube. “No way. So when I arrived home i think, I cannot leave my belt, lose like that to Julianna. Come on, seriously? Let’s go do this again. Let’s get this belt and move on.”
Nunes came back at UFC 277 and defeated Peña by unanimous decision. With a third flight being canceled again, it is clear if they will ever have that trilogy fight. Although Nunes is claiming that her retirement is not something that she is thinking about right now, she has a growing family. She’s enjoying her time in the gym and as a UFC champion and claims to want to stick around a bit more. She is also still holding the featherweight championship belt which she has not defended since March of 2021.
