Amanda Nunes calls any future UFC belts in her divisions ‘fake forever,’ scoffs at Julianna Peña
Amanda Nunes is shutting the door on any comeback talks — and any talks from her supposed rivals.
“The Lioness” went out on her own terms Saturday at UFC 289 in Vancouver following a five-round unanimous decision win over Irene Aldana in the main event. Following the sixth successful defense of her 135-pound title (the first of her second reign), the two-division champion laid both her bantamweight and featherweight titles down in the octagon along with her gloves to signal her retirement.
A beaming Nunes was later asked if there was anything that would convince her to fight again, to which she replied that no matter what happens she’ll always be the real UFC champion of her weight classes.
“No, I’m going to have my belt at home with me,” Nunes said at the evening’s post-fight press conference. “That’s going to be the fake one. It’s going to be fake forever. Whoever gets the belt now, it’s going to be just, like, pretending to have it. So I’m gone. I’m good. I did everything, all is taken care of in my life.
“Thank you to the UFC, they really took care of me and they’re always going to take care of me. So I’m going to be around here. If I don’t do anything, I’m still going to go up and down just to be around, because I love this sport so much and I did everything to be the best. And I proved it tonight. I retired with my two belts.”
By any definition, Nunes cleared out the competition during her six-year reign atop two divisions, with notable wins over Aldana, Julianna Peña, Germaine de Randamie, Holly Holm, Cris Cyborg, Valentina Shevchenko, Ronda Rousey, and Miesha Tate. Any one of those wins would have been the exclamation point on a fantastic career, but having them all gives Nunes an airtight case to be considered the best woman we’ve ever seen compete in MMA.
That leaves big shoes to be filled, and Nunes isn’t particularly concerned with who steps up to try.
“Honestly, I want to be there just to watch,” Nunes said. “For me, right now I don’t really care. I beat all of them, so there’s nothing left. If anybody gets this belt now, it’s just to have it, because I did everything in this division. This division is gone. All of them. I beat all the girls out there, all the best girls, so I just want to watch from the outside now what’s going to happen. I’m going to be there, for sure.”
Nunes’ two-time title fight opponent Peña, the only woman to defeat Nunes during her championship reign, immediately took to social media after Nunes’ retirement to accuse Nunes of ducking her. Peña was originally scheduled to fight Nunes in a trilogy bout at UFC 289 before being forced to withdraw due to a rib injury. The two previously fought at UFC 269, where Peña scored a shocking second-round submission over Nunes, and in an immediate rematch at UFC 277, where Nunes regained the title with a five-round drubbing of Peña.
Asked about Peña’s comments, Nunes could only laugh.
“Oh my goodness, what can I say about that girl?” Nunes said. “She’s supposed to be here. I’m supposed to beat her tonight again. She’s the one that was hurt in training, break the ribs, what am I going to do?
“If it was Julianna Peña [I was fought against] tonight, I don’t retire. Because I want to fight somebody that I never fought before to retire. Tonight, it wouldn’t have been the night. I would have beat Julianna and then fight Aldana or whatever and then retire.”
Nunes was then asked point-blank if she thought Peña could win the title again, and her answer was blunt, to put it nicely.
“No,” Nunes said. “I don’t think so. I think Aldana can beat her. I feel like [Peña] got lucky in that fight against me. She knows I wasn’t ready, but I proved it in the second fight and I don’t think she’s going to be a champion. She’s not ready. She’s not ready to be a champion.”