Julianna Peña believed. She might have been the only one.
Peña entered Saturday night’s UFC 269 co-main event as a 6½-to-1 betting underdog against Amanda Nunes, and who could argue with that? She was up against the greatest fighter in the history of women’s MMA, and a two-division champion.
Amanda Nunes walked into T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to defend her bantamweight championship. Now Nunes only owns the featherweight title.
That’s because Peña did exactly what she had been saying she would do in the leadup to this bantamweight title fight. She said she would go right at Nunes. She said she would make Nunes quit.
To many, including this observer, Peña’s words sounded like nothing but empty bluster. The 32-year-old from Spokane, Washington was just 1-1 in her last two fights, and as recently as 2020 had been choked out by a kickboxer. What threat could she possibly pose to Nunes, the No. 1 fighter in the ESPN women’s pound-for-pound rankings and a winner of 12 straight fights in a run of success that extends all the way back to 2015? I was not alone in casting this title bout as a mismatch.
And it started out looking like one. Peña did come forward, as she said she would, but throughout the first round Nunes beat her to the punch again and again. Nunes took Peña to the canvas midway through the round and dominated her there. It was looking like another day at the office for the GOAT.
Then it wasn’t. Round 2 began with Peña once again coming forward, but this time her jabs were landing. So was the occasional right hand. Nunes was returning fire, but without her usual precision. The champ was loading up with power, but she missed again and again, and all that did was tire her out.
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Julianna Pena says confidence was the key after dethroning Amanda Nunes with a shocking submission win at UFC 269.
By the middle of the round, the defending champ looked to be fading, and that only emboldened the challenger. After backing up Nunes with her strikes,…
Source : espn
