Vancouver – Following a dominant victory over Irene Aldana at UFC 289, UFC bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes has retired from professional MMA.
Nunes (22-5) ends her career as the only female UFC champ-champ and one of the most dominating champions of all time. Arguably the women’s MMA GOAT she took out some of the biggest names in UFC history.
Finishing Sarah McMann, two wins over the very dominant former champion Valentina Shevchenko, finishes over Miesha Tate, Raquel Pennington, and Holly Holm on her impressive resume.
Add on top of that not just defeating, but finishing two of the greatest fighters of all time in Ronda Rousey and Cris Cyborg, and you can see why Nunes is recognized as the greatest female fighter of all time.
Her departure from the UFC leaves two giant holes in the promotion and the sport. Now that the bantamweight title is vacated who will fight for it next? Will Julianna Peña and Raquel Pennington, who weighed-in as the backup fighter for UFC 289, fight for that belt? Or will Aldana gets a second shot at it possibly against either Peña or Pennington?
Does this mean the end for the UFC’s women’s featherweight division? With the champion gone and the roster very light on featherweights it’s tough to see that division continuing on.
In the end Nunes will go down as the women’s GOAT with her name likely to be added to the UFC hall of fame much sooner than later.
Her legacy will be left to historians to put into words, but one thing is for sure. Nunes will go down as one of the most, if not the most, dominant female champion that the sport has ever seen. It will be quite a bit of time before we see the likes of an Amanda Nunes in the world of MMA once again.
