Issue 199

August 2023

Amanda Nunes' UFC Hall of Fame credentials are beyond doubt, and she brought the curtain down on her stellar career in a near-perfect retirement at UFC 289. Award-winning journalist John Morgan caught up with "The Lioness" for Fighters Only and found a dual-weight queen who still has no plans to relinquish her two crowns any time soon.

Amanda Nunes is the greatest female fighter of all time. 

It's a bold statement, to be sure, but one that doesn't require much creativity to argue. Nunes has built such a track record, her work largely speaks for itself.

Nunes is the first – and to date, only – woman to ever simultaneously hold UFC titles in two divisions, joining combat sports superstar Conor McGregor and UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier as the only athletes in history to ever reign over two UFC weight classes at the same time. She holds wins over an astonishing seven different former UFC champions, including all four other women who have ever held the promotion's 135-pound title in Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm, Miesha Tate, and Julianna Pena, as well as the only two other women to ever hold the organization's women's featherweight belt in Germaine de Randamie and Cris Cyborg.

Rounding out that list of fallen former titleholders is the most dominant women's flyweight champion in UFC history, Valentina Shevchenko.

Those wins alone should be enough to earn "The Lioness" her GOAT status, but she has plenty of other accolades, as well. Her 12-fight win streak that ran from 2015 to 2021 is the longest for any woman in UFC history. She is a three-time winner of the Fighters Only World MMA Awards' "Female Fighter of the Year," joining Rousey as the only woman to earn that honor on three separate occasions. She even one-upped McGregor and Cormier by becoming the only athlete to not only hold two UFC titles, but also defend them both.

Those accomplishments make her status undeniable, and while Nunes has always carried herself with ample humility, even she has learned to accept her position as the most dominant force in women's MMA history.

"You know, I have put everything I have into this sport," Nunes told Fighters Only. "I love this sport so much, and I've put everything that I have into it to chase my dream, to become who I am today. I feel like all the positive thoughts from the fans – from everybody, really – I feel like it's very important and good for me, so if they tell me that I'm the greatest, I feel happy, and I'm able to push forward and give my all to the fans, doing what they want to see every time I step in the cage: a girl that can strike, that can finish people on the floor, that can take somebody down. 

"So yes, I feel happy when they call me the GOAT, and I know that after all the work I put in, the sweat, the blood, the heart that I show in that cage, I feel like I deserve to be able to say, 'Yeah, I'm the greatest.'"

"I knew I was going to be the one to beat her, and it happened"

Amanda Nunes

The only credible rival to Nunes' status is Cyborg, the fellow Brazilian who prides herself as a "Grand Slam Champion," having held titles in four major promotions, including the UFC, Bellator, Strikeforce, and Invicta FC. Cyborg also boasts an astonishing 26-2 career record that includes an incredible 19-fight winning streak from 2005 to 2018. Of course, it was Nunes that put that run to an end in spectacular fashion at UFC 232.

In perhaps the most electric 51-second performance in MMA history, Nunes went toe-to-toe with the vaunted slugger, unloading a blistering barrage of punches that only halted once a vicious right hand sent Cyborg crashing to the canvas.

"That night, I made history," Nunes said. "I was so ready. Nothing was going to stop me from doing what I wanted. I respect Cris a lot. She was a great champion, but I knew I was going to be the one to beat her, and it happened."

Despite her dominance, Nunes hasn't been perfect inside the UFC cage. In 2021, she entered her UFC 269 clash with Pena as a nearly unfathomable -1250 favorite with the oddsmakers, implying a nearly 93 percent probability of victory. In a shocking result, Pena secured a second-round submission win to claim one of the greatest upsets in UFC history and capture the UFC women's bantamweight championship.

Undeterred, Nunes booked an immediate rematch with Pena just seven months later and claimed complete control of the action in the UFC 277 headliner, taking home a decision win and reclaiming her title with scores of 50-45, 50-44, and 50-43 – leading UFC president Dana White to label the win as "an absolutely dominant performance."

"I didn't think it was close in any way, shape or form," White said at the evening's post-fight press conference. "It was a complete shutout."

For her part, Nunes believes the second meeting is a much more accurate representation of her skills than what she displayed in the surprising upset loss.

"Julianna knows that the first fight was just a bad day on my end, so that's what happened," Nunes said. "I feel like things happen for a reason in my life, and when I lost to Julianna, it was a lesson that I was supposed to learn from and move on in my life and do all the things needed to get right back going and take my belt back. Now, I feel like whatever these girls bring up, I'm going to be ready for. There is a reason that I'm a champion, you know? I've been proving all these years that I'm better than all of them."

Going it alone, and giving back

In addition to furthering her own fighting career, Nunes is now doing her best to pass on her skills to a new generation of athletes. The two-division champion, a longtime member of the famed American Top Team, has recently elected to open her own private training center, Lioness Studio, where she's able to work alongside family and friends, including UFC and PFL veteran Bruno Santos, as well as current UFC women's flyweight Ariane Lipski.

"The space obviously is mine, you know, but we are there to help each other," Nunes said. "I feel like I don't really have a formal team right now. I don't compete with any particular gym. I just have good friends with me, you know? Bruno, we've known each other since back in the day in my city, Salvador, in Brazil. I fought on the same card as him. He was the main event of the show when I was just getting started, so it's pretty crazy."

Reunited in Florida, Santos is now a fixture in training sessions with Nunes, and she's taken "Carioca" in as a rebuilding project, aiming to get him back to the promotion he competed for three times previously.

"He went three years without fighting," Nunes explained. "He got in the UFC and he fought in the biggest promotion, and he ended up with a couple of losses and was released. Now he's working to get back in. I'm very happy that he's back in there training and competing, and I think we'll be able to do this together again. I'm pretty sure we will see that guy back in the UFC soon. I'm pushing him to do it. I'm going to talk to Dana White. I'm going to talk to everybody, you know, because he's ready. I never ask for anything from Dana White, you know? But this time, I'm going to work to get Bruno back in the UFC. He's coming back right now, and he's getting better. He's been fighting on smaller shows just to get everything under control, and soon, I want to see him there in the UFC. I know a talent like that cannot be wasted."

Nunes is taking a similar role with "The Queen of Violence," as well, helping Lipski hone her craft while competing at the sport's highest level.

"Ariane Lipski, too," Nunes said. "Honestly, in the studio, we help each other. It's not like a big gym. We get in there, and we are all good friends. We have fun just being around each other. Sometimes it's only the three of us, you know, and we have so much fun inside of that gym, and sometimes all of our other friends come, too, and we have a great time. So it's only friends and family and people that we really trust, and that's it. 

"Right now, I'm not really thinking about opening a big gym or anything like that, but eventually, I want to be there for fighters. I want to maybe give a little advice here and there and be involved and maybe help build a champion. That would be cool."

In the meantime, Nunes is also building her family. "The Lioness" and her wife, current UFC women's flyweight Nina Nunes welcomed their first daughter, Raegan, in 2020, and she has since become a constant in the double champ's entourage. Whether it be fight week or any other UFC obligations for Nunes, her family is always close behind.

"Thankfully, the UFC makes this very easy," Nunes said. "I can bring Nina and Raegan with me everywhere. It's pretty cool. I feel like Raegan, she's growing so fast. I don't want to spend one night far away from her, so if the UFC is able to make that happen, I bring her with me. I think it's pretty cool that they make it so easy, and Raegan is actually really helping me. She calms my nerves down. She's always asking me questions. She talks so much, and we just have fun. 

"I feel like when you travel somewhere with your family, you end up having more fun than if you are by yourself, right? So I love to have them with me. We always have a good time, and this is what it's all about, you know? Doing what I love and having a good time."

Nunes and her wife will welcome a second child to their family later this year, and "The Lioness" has previously admitted that her commitment to her growing family had her openly contemplating just how much longer she wanted to continue competing. With 15 years as a professional, Nunes insisted her passion for the sport is still there, but motherhood is fast becoming her chief priority. 

"I love this business," Nunes said. "I love being around everyone. I love the entire process, and this is what will drive me moving forward – having Raegan with me, being able to take a picture and have those moments with her, that's huge for me. Every time I tell her where we are going to travel, she loves learning to say the name of the city right away. 

"When we traveled for the last press conference in New Jersey, the whole time, she was saying, 'We're going to go to New Jersey,' so it's pretty cool to be able to have her with me and to see her getting to travel all over. Being in the UFC, creating these memories with her, this is so important. Honestly, it will just depend on the nights for me. If the night comes where I want to retire, I'm going to feel it out and see what happens."

That night came just a couple of weeks after our conversation. She defeated Irene Aldana in typically dominant fashion at UFC 289, then laid down both championship belts, and her UFC gloves, as she announced her retirement. "The Lioness" had done it all, and she was going out on her terms.

With her career now in the history books, a UFC Hall of Fame berth is sure to follow. At just 34 years old, Nunes accomplished everything in the sport. She ruled the UFC's women's bantamweight division for 1,981 days – trailing only all-time greats Demetrious Johnson, Georges St-Pierre, and Anderson Silva for the longest title reigns in company history. Her seven knockouts and three submissions in the octagon combine to give her the most finishes of any woman in UFC history.

In short, her accomplishments put her head and shoulders above her peers. She is the top pound-for-pound female fighter on the planet, but even that status seems to come up short in summarizing her accomplishments. She has records that quite simply may never be broken.

Amanda Nunes is the greatest female fighter of all time.