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UFC 232 ended 2018 with a bang, and perhaps the biggest story coming out of the event wasn’t the controversial return of Jon Jones, but the destruction of the seemingly unbeatable Cris Cyborg at the hands of Amanda Nunes.
The UFC Women’s Bantamweight champion moved up from 135lbs to take on Cyborg – who had held the 145lbs title since July 2017 and hadn’t lost since 2005 – and few expected her to find any success, but less than a minute into the fight, Cyborg was unconscious and Nunes had her hand raised – becoming a double champion in the process.
Dana White has promised that after the event, Nunes will become a huge star, but the truth is that there’s a lot about ‘The Lioness’ that fans don’t really know – so here are 5 facts about Amanda Nunes that you may not have known before.
#1 She has a knockout win over the Bellator Featherweight champion
Bellator might be the UFC’s biggest rival promotion right now, but there’s absolutely no chance that they can claim to have the top female Featherweight under their umbrella. Their current 145lbs queen is Julia ‘The Jewel’ Budd; unbeaten since 2012, Budd won the Bellator title in March 2017 and has defended it successfully twice.
Unfortunately, if you look a little further back on her record, you’ll see something pretty shocking – she was knocked out by Amanda Nunes back in 2011, and to add insult to injury the fight lasted just 14 seconds. It took place in StrikeForce – a couple of months prior to the Zuffa buyout – on one of their Challengers b-shows.
Fascinatingly, alongside Nunes, the same show also featured another two future UFC champions. Daniel Cormier defeated Devin Cole while Tyron Woodley outpointed Tarec Saffiedine in the main event.
It’s that Nunes vs. Budd result which stands out today, though; it’s rare that you come across meetings between future UFC and Bellator champions, and even rarer to find a result as one-sided as this one was.
#2 She’s the UFC’s first openly gay champion
MMA is actually a pretty progressive sport when it comes to openly homosexual athletes. It’s not so much that there are more gay athletes in the sport, more than being gay just doesn’t seem like a big deal at all. Liz Carmouche, for instance, fought for the UFC Women’s Bantamweight title in her promotional debut and the fact that she was gay was barely given a mention going into her clash with Ronda Rousey.
That’s why some fans might not realise that Amanda Nunes is not only the first openly gay champion in UFC history, but she’s also engaged to a fellow UFC fighter and a pretty good one at that. Nunes’ partner Nina Ansaroff competes in the Strawweight division and is currently ranked as the #3 fighter in the world after her big win over Claudia Gadelha in December.
Ansaroff can always be seen in Nunes’ corner for her fights – and vice versa of course – and ‘The Lioness’ has even credited the relationship for her success in the sport.
Fascinatingly, when Nunes defended her Bantamweight crown against Raquel Pennington at UFC 224 last May, more history was also made; the fight was the first UFC main event to see two openly gay athletes facing off – and as Pennington’s partner Tecia Torres competes in the Strawweight division, there’s a chance that she could end up facing Ansaroff in the future, bringing the 4 women together again.
#3 She rarely goes the distance
Nunes’ disappointing title fight with Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 215 was widely panned as one of the worst UFC title fights of all time, but in hindsight perhaps that shouldn’t have been a surprise. ‘The Lioness’ is simply not used to going the distance in her fights.
Nunes has had 21 fights in her career and incredibly, only 3 of them have gone the distance. That means around 85% of her fights have ended before the final buzzer – whether she’s won or lost. Prior to facing Shevchenko – who has taken her the distance twice – Nunes’ last decision was a loss to Sarah D’Alelio prior to her UFC career beginning.
More evidence of her being a ruthless finisher can be seen in the fact that of her 17 wins, 12 of them have ended in the first round, and incredibly 5 of them have ended before the one minute mark. Simply put, ‘The Lioness’ is one of the best finishers in the UFC today, meaning that terrible title fight with Shevchenko wasn’t the rule, it was the exception.
#4 She started fighting at 19 years old
This March will mark Nunes’ 11th year in professional MMA, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that the UFC champion is probably coming towards the end of her active career and is probably in her late 30’s. That’s not the case at all though – Nunes doesn’t turn 31 until May, and one reason for her longevity is that she started fighting at the age of 19.
Even more incredibly, ‘The Lioness’ wasn’t even involved in combat sports until she turned 16 years old and began boxing. At 17 she began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and less than two years later she was making her professional MMA debut – a loss to the now unheralded Ana Maria India.
To turn professional so quickly is almost unheard of in the world of MMA, and speaks volumes about the skill and talent that Nunes clearly possesses. And despite her reputation as a striker, she now holds a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under the respected Daniel Valverde – an achievement she reached in late 2013 alongside fellow UFC fighter Ricardo Lamas.
#5 She holds wins over 5 UFC champions
UFC President Dana White has taken to calling Nunes the greatest female fighter in MMA history since her big victory at UFC 232, and while he’s definitely prone to hyperbole at times, on this occasion it’s probably hard to argue with him.
Not only is Nunes now the only woman to hold UFC titles in two different weight classes at the same time, she’s also accomplished another huge feat.
That feat? She holds wins over 5 different UFC champions. Her first victim was the UFC’s inaugural Women’s Featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie, who was dispatched via a first-round TKO in November 2013.
She then defeated current UFC Women’s Flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko – and picked up another win over her later on - before taking the Bantamweight title from then-champ Miesha Tate.
From there Nunes defeated the UFC’s first women’s champion and Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey before dispatching Cris Cyborg last weekend. Add in her afore-mentioned win over Bellator champion Julia Budd, and her 2015 win over veteran Shayna Baszler – who held the title in the smaller Freestyle Cage Fighting organisation – and it’s easy to see why White would consider her the greatest of all time.
