American Top Team owner Dan Lambert feels Amanda Nunes is more then capable of defending both her UFC titles.
After beating Cris Cyborg at UFC 232 last weekend to become the first female fighter in the UFC to hold two belts simultaneously, ATT owner Dan Lambert feels Amanda Nunes should be able to defend both her bantamweight and featherweight belts.
Nunes snapped Cyborg’s twenty-fight winning streak by knocking her out under a minute to win the 145-pound belt, earning herself a Performance of the Night bonus in the process. Only two other fighters in the UFC have held two belts at the same time, with Conor McGregor achieving it in 2016, and Daniel Cormier accomplishing it in 2018.
Talking to MMAjunkie Radio, Lambert argued that Nunes is in a different position to those two men, and will be able to defend both her titles.
“I know in some of the deeper divisions they have, it’s impossible to be a champ-champ. How’s ‘DC’ going to defend it against the best in the world at heavyweight and the best in the world at light heavyweight at the same time? It’s kind of impossible. But there’s not quite as many – I mean, obviously, the featherweight division, they don’t even have rankings out there. How many people do they even have there? So it may be possible for her to keep both.”
The 30-year-old won the UFC bantamweight title with a one-sided first round finish over Miesha Tate at UFC 200, she has since defended that belt three times. After pulling out of a rematch with Shevchenko on the day of the fight in July 2017 due to illness, there were doubts over Nunes’ future at 135-pounds, but Lambert sees no issue.
“She’s really comfortable at 135,” Lambert said. “She’s never had problems making the weight, absent one time where she was sick. She felt ill. It wasn’t a weight-related issue. Some people thought it was. And obviously making ’45 is a piece of cake for her.”
“The pop that I heard when she was running around that ring with those two belts on her shoulders like she stole them off Conor, it rocked the place,” Lambert said. “I’d really like to see it. I think the UFC is going to try to get behind her. I think she’s getting better every fight she has. I think she’s going to be a dominant champion in both divisions, and people like dominance. People like dominating fighters, so I’d love to see it.”