The Lioness

UFC rebooks Amanda Nunes – Megan Anderson

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The UFC has finalized and booked the women’s featherweight title fight that was supposed to take place a couple of weeks ago. Promotion officials confirmed with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that Amanda Nunes (20-4) will be taking on Megan Anderson (11-4).

The UFC featherweight title fight will take place on March 6th according to promotion officials. The fight was originally supposed to take place at UFC 256. However, Nunes had to pull out of the fight a few weeks prior.

For the champion, she will be looking to successfully defend her title for the second time. Back in June at UFC 250, Nunes defended her featherweight crown for the first time against top contender, Felicia Spencer.

While Spencer showed incredible toughness and heart, it was a one-sided beating for five rounds. Nunes once again showed why she’s the very best the UFC has to offer with her complete dominance over Spencer.

Nunes is the lone active double-champ in the UFC. She holds both the featherweight and bantamweight titles. Her first defense of the year is at featherweight, but she plans on then dropping back down to 135 pounds to defend the other title.

Can Anderson become UFC champion?

Megan Anderson is going to have her hands full on March 6th. She will try to hand Nunes her first loss in the UFC since 2014. Since that last loss, Nunes has hardly looked human with only Valentina Shevchenko pushing her to the limit.

Anderson is coming into March 6th having won three of her last four in the UFC. Her lone loss came to Felicia Spencer. Outside of that, she’s finished all three of her wins in the first round.

She started with a first round stoppage over Cat Zingano then proceeded to finish Zarah Fairn Dos Santos and Norma Dumont. In her last two fights, she’s shown off her submission skills and her knockout power.

Anderson is going to be a massive underdog to the UFC champion. However, she does have some physical attributes that will give the champion a different look. Anderson is very long at six feet tall.

Her long limbs should allow her to keep her distance if she strikes efficiently. In addition to that, she’s very good on the ground with her long legs. That said, it’s going to be a massive challenge trying to overcome the UFC’s GOAT. March 6th should be a good one at featherweight.

BREAKING: Amanda Nunes – Megan Anderson at UFC 256 is off

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The return of the greatest female mixed martial artist of all time is going to have to wait. Per ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, UFC 256 is losing the title fight between Amanda Nunes (20-4) and Megan Anderson (11-4). The fight was expected to headline the card.

Nunes was getting ready to make her UFC return after she became a mother a short time ago. Nunes took some time off after she successfully defended her featherweight crown at UFC 250 in an absolute destruction of Felicia Spencer.

The Lioness seemed ready to be very active over the next year recently stating that she will be competing between 145 and 135 defending both UFC titles. Now, it appears that the world is going to have to wait a little longer for the return of the UFC champion.

This is a tough break for the Australian challenger, Megan Anderson. Anderson has won back-to-back fights to earn the shot at the UFC champion. She has a skillset that would pose some interesting challenges for Nunes.

Per Megan Anderson’s Twitter account, it appears that Nunes was injured which is why the fight has fallen through. She stated that the promotion is working to book the fight for early next year. However, there is no date as of now.

UFC 256 Outlook

UFC 256 has gone through several changes. Originally, the card was set to be headlined by the welterweight title fight between Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns. However, that fight fell through after Usman needed more time to heal from his last fight.

Then, the UFC announced that Petr Yan would defend his bantamweight title against Aljamain Sterling. That put the card back to two title fights. However, now we’ve just learned that the headlining fight between Nunes and Anderson is off.

The good news is that the UFC does still have one title fight on the card. The bad news is that the promotion is going to have to scramble to book a quality co-main event or a new main event for the December 12 PPV.

UFC: Two-Division Champ, Amanda Nunes, considering retirement

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The greatest female fighter in UFC history is considering walking away from the sport. In an interview with Esporte Espetacular, Amanda Nunes said that there’s nothing left for her in the sport of MMA. “I’ve achieved everything I wanted. . . I can go on with my life, maybe a new step, maybe find new talents,” Nunes said in the interview.

What’s left to prove?

When you sit back and think about it, there really is nothing at the moment for Amanda Nunes. In talking about proposed superfights, I suggested that the UFC needed to pair her and flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko, up one more time. Nunes holds a 2-0 record in their series, but the last fight was very controversial. However, UFC President, Dana White, said that Shevchenko would fight strawweight champion, Weili Zhang, before she would fight Nunes again. If there’s no Shevchenko fight, who is Nunes supposed to fight at this stage in her career?

There are a couple of solid contenders for Nunes, but there’s no matchups that are remotely interesting. That’s no knock on the ladies that are lined up behind Nunes, but it’s a testament to just how good the champ is. I don’t see any competitive fights for her at 135 or 145. I think the only fight you could sell would be Megan Anderson, but Nunes just destroyed Felicia Spencer who just beat Anderson not too long ago. The only woman who can hang with her is Shevchenko, and that fight is not happening. Maybe it is time for the champion to walk away from the sport, at least for a while.

Greatest female fighter in UFC history

“The Lioness” has accomplished more than any other woman in UFC history. She’s the only woman to hold a belt in two weight classes at the same time. She’s the only fighter in UFC history to successfully defend both titles while holding onto them. She’s knocked out Ronda Rousey, she’s knocked out Cyborg, she’s knocked out Holly Holm, and she holds two wins over arguably the second greatest female fighter of all time, Valentina Shevchenko. Nunes is about to become a first-time mother with her wife and fellow UFC fighter, Nina Ansaroff. With nothing left to prove, maybe it’s time that she takes a step back and focus on other things in her life. At just 32-years-old, Nunes doesn’t have to walk away forever, but maybe it’s time to take a break from fighting. Maybe down the road she can return for a superfight if a new dominant champion emerges. Until then, there’s nothing left for her to prove. She can walk away now with no reservations as the greatest female UFC fighter we’ve ever seen.