UFC featherweight champion, Amanda Nunes has admitted that she needed to reignite a missing spark inside of her ahead of this weekend’s pivotal bantamweight title rematch against champion, Julianna Peña at UFC 277, admitting that she likely lost the hunger from years gone by.
Nunes, the first female two-weight champion in the history of the UFC, suffered a hugely shocking, upset loss to Peña back in December in the co-main event of UFC 269, dropping her undisputed bantamweight championship courtesy of a second round rear-naked choke.
The loss snapped an undefeated run of six years and 12 straight fights for the Brazilian veteran, while she also decided to part ways from long-time home base, American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida – a facility she joined following her other promotional loss to Cat Zingano.
Previewing her return to the Octagon on Saturday at UFC 277 in Dallas, Texas against Peña, Nunes admitted that she got “comfortable” as the defending division champion.
“I feel like sometimes Dana (White) says something and people really pick the little parts that’s gonna make him look bad,” Amanda Nunes told ESPN MMA reporter, Marc Raimondi.
“I feel like what he says sometimes, if you’re looking that way, yeah, I got very comfortable,” Amanda Nunes continued. “And you want to enjoy your life when you do all those things that I did. I want to travel, I want to go see my family, I want to rest a little bit and then the thing is, you will slow down a little bit.
Amanda Nunes admits she took her foot off the proverbial gas pedal amid her dominant run
Nunes claimed that he dominant reign over the bantamweight and featherweight ranks likely resulted in her “slowing down” – however, she believes she has now reignited that fire with her setback against Peña.
“When you do everything that I did, one day you’re going to relax a little bit,” Amanda Nunes said. “I did so much now, I can kind of rest a little bit. I was dominating. I became double champion, killed all those girls in front of me, clean the division. So I kind of slowed down, too, yeah.”
“Until Julianna (Peña) came into the picture, now we’re here again. I’m really pumped for this fight and like Dana said, I gotta get my sh*t together. I’m fired up now.” (Transcribed by Bloody Elbow)
Ahead of the PFL playoffs where she looks to make history with a third-straight championship, Kayla Harrison sat down with us here at LowKick MMA for an exclusive interview. She detailed her beef with Larissa Pacheco, mentioned how much she misses training with Amanda Nunes, and gave her prediction for how she believes the second […]