Julianna Pena shockingly beat Amanda Nunes seven months ago to claim the UFC women's bantamweight title at UFC 269. Nunes vowed to make changes in order to get her revenge. She did just that with a dominant victory on Saturday night at UFC 277.
Nunes won a unanimous decision (50-45, 50-44, 50-43) in the main event to take back her belt. She used some new tactics to take down Pena and set a women's record for most knockdowns in a single round at UFC with three in the second.
“The lioness, if they don't get the prey the first time, I set the trap and I know I'd get it the second time,” Amanda Nunes said in her postfight interview, per Marc Raimondi of ESPN.
One of the new strategies Nunes used was going with a southpaw stance. She highlighted that as the “main” reason for her big victory.
“The main thing was my southpaw,” Amanda Nunes said. “I know I was going to catch her with that tonight. I knew she was not going to be able to adjust to that. She's not a striker. … She was so confused. I'm not very good yet with my southpaw. I told my coach, ‘I'm going to see how I feel.' I tried tonight, and I felt good.”
Nunes solidified herself as the greatest women's MMA fighter in history and did a lot of damage to Pena in the process. UFC president Dana White even acknowledged that Pena “has a big chunk missing from her forehead,” which required a trip to the hospital after the fight.
Amanda Nunes now has 15 UFC victories (the most among women in history), and she also became the first woman in UFC history to regain the bantamweight title after losing it. White suggested a third fight against Valentina Shevchenko could be in the cards next.
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