For the first time in 7 years, Amanda Nunes, the Greatest Women UFC fighter of all time, has been defeated.
Julianna Peña is the New UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion after submitting the most dominant champion the UFC has ever seen in the second round by Rear Naked Choke.
Peña was a +650 underdog heading into the fight and those odds only increases as the start time crept forward. Amanda Nunes was up to -1350 before the fight by my checks, but even that doesn’t do enough to explain how enormous of a moment this is.
Amanda’s last loss came in September of 2014 and since then has absolutely dominated every woman she’s been in the cage with. She first won the Bantamweight title in 2016 with a submission win against Miesha Tate and added the Featherweight belt in 2018 with a knock out of Cris Cyborg.
She defended her titles a total of 7 times, each win coming with little to no resistance, dominating her opponents in ever facet of the game, taking advantage of even slight mistakes, finishing 8 of her last 12 fights with only one split decision (against Valentina Shevchenko, the also dominant Flyweight Champion who has only lost to Amanda Nunes since 2010) in the 4 fights that went the distance.
Julianna Peñaa said going into the fight she was going to get in her face, challenge her and take her to a place she’s never been, and while many have said that going in, she’s the first to actually do that since Nunes claimed her belts.
What a night. Truly an incredible performance by Julianna Peña. She absolutely earned the title and I’m honored to have watched the fight through totally legal means.
Cheers to you, Julianna Peña.
Let’s get that rematch scheduled…
