Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Dana White is a staunch supporter of fighters retiring, unless that fighter is Amanda Nunes.
Dana White has always said a fighter should retire when they say they want to retire; however, that rule does not apply Amanda Nunes.
White caught up with The Schmo for a half-hour on the latter’s Schmozone Podcast. Nunes brought up the idea of retirement following a dominant win over Felicia Spencer at UFC 251. Those comments went unnoticed in the mind of White. The UFC President was caught off guard when that information was presented to him by The Schmo.
“I will kill her,” White said (h/t MMA Junkie). “I literally just told [UFC matchmakers] Sean [Shelby] and Mick [Maynard] in the last meeting let’s get this division built for her. Let’s build this division for her, and let’s start figuring this out. And now she’s talking about retiring?”
“You know what’s awesome about that when you think about it? Her retiring isn’t awesome; that actually drives me nuts. You know how I always say, ‘If you’re talking about retiring, you probably should.’ Unless if you’re where she’s at,” he continued. “In this time when I got guys crying about money, one of our female fighters, who could go on and keep doing this for a long time, is saying, ‘Maybe I retire now.’ She’s got plenty of money, and she can do it.”
Nunes currently lays claim to the UFC women’s featherweight and bantamweight titles. She is on an 11-fight, five-year winning streak with scalps including: Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Holly Holm, Miesha Tate and Valentina Shevchenko (twice).
It should be noted that Nunes has been talking about retirement as far back as 2017, and brought it up again prior to her victory over Holly Holm last year.