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#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.
