Amanda Nunes Shoots Down Possibility of Third Fight with Valentina Shevchenko
Not many people expected Amanda Nunes to win on Saturday night but not only did she win, but she did so in spectacular fashion.
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Nunes stood toe-to-toe with the woman virtually everybody proclaimed as the most frightening female striker to ever walk the earth and prevailed. Nunes rocked “Cyborg” with a brisk left-right combination to the face at the outset and continued to shatter her opponent’s equilibrium with powerful punches until it was over. But even with “Lioness” being aware of her own considerable power, she admitted at the post-fight press conference that she was a bit surprised at how easy it was against “Cyborg.”
“I know I hit hard,” Nunes said. “But sometimes you never know.
Some things can happen so you have to be ready. When I connected
with my first punch, she kind of got rocked already and I thought,
‘What will happen when I really connect on her?’ My distance and
being faster was the key tonight.”
Nunes said she never was hurt by any of Justino’s power punches and was never fearful of what her fellow Brazilian brought to the table.
“I train in the gym with all those guys at American Top Team” she said with a laugh. “I get hit in the head and I know she wouldn’t knock me out. Nothing was going to stop me. When she connected with a couple punches, I said [to myself] that I’m going to just walk forward.”
With a resume that is starting to overflow with wins over elite-level opposition, Nunes staked her claim as the sport’s greatest female fighter in history. Not only has she already beaten Valentina Shevchenko twice, she holds wins over Meisha Tate, Raquel Pennington and Sara McMann. Add her 51-second destruction of “Cyborg” in the co-main event of UFC 232 Saturday night to her 48-second clobbering of Ronda Rousey at UFC 207, and Nunes is without equal.
“It’s the moment I’ve waited for my whole life,” said Nunes, who also asked UFC President Dana White to put her in the promotion’s Hall of Fame. “I made history. It’s incredible.”
Nunes became the third fighter – and first woman – to simultaneously hold world titles in two weight classes. But with all of the accolades rightfully falling at her feet, the logical question is who is next and at which weight? The one name that kept popping up after her fight was Shevchenko, but Nunes scoffed at the notion of a third fight with “Bullet.” Nunes already owns a pair of wins against the reigning flyweight champion at 135 pounds, although both bouts were competitive decisions.
“She had two times [already],” she said. “Tonight is not about Valentina.”
Ultimately, Nunes didn’t specify who she wanted to fight next or when. No matter the opponent, it’ll be a historic event for a fighter who continues to improve each time out.
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