Amanda Nunes has claimed that a “terrible” training camp and lingering injuries played a part in her huge upset title loss to Julianna Peña.
At UFC 269, the entire MMA community was left completely stunned when Amanda Nunes lost her UFC bantamweight title to Peña.
In what has been regarded as one of the biggest shocks in the history of the sport, Peña defeated Nunes via second round submission to claim the UFC bantamweight title.
In the post fight interview, in the octagon, Nunes never mentioned any injuries or issues in camp. However, fast forward on a few months later and Nunes has told ESPN that her “whole camp for this fight was a mess”.
“I always want to put in my head that I was ok, I can do this, because we (fighters) are like that. We want to go through whatever to step in the cage. My first fight against her fell through, I got COVID, all those things, and in my second fight with her, the camp I went through a couple of issues as well, that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to really show up to the gym every day at 100 percent. But I didn’t want to let that fight go again. I don’t think it would have looked good for me”.
“The Lioness” went on to explain that she injured both of her knees during the fight camp, which meant she couldn’t effectively train. She said the main focus in camp due to the injuries was on striking and keeping her diet in check, because she was unable to run, in order to cut weight.
“Both knees were pretty bad and I wasn’t able to recover and I went through,” Nunes said. “Every time I was training back home, the next day I couldn’t even walk. But I don’t want to make excuses. I did that. I paid for my mistakes, but I want to do a full camp, and I didn’t”.
The fight started off in the same fashion that most Nunes fights do. She dominated, and clipped and buzzed Peña a whole bunch of times. By the end of the 1st round, fans were expecting only one thing; Nunes to finish it in the 2nd round.
However the challenger had other ideas. Peña came out into the 2nd round and totally ripped up the script. She stepped on Nunes and went toe to toe with her in the middle of the octagon. Both of them landing hard on a consistent basis, and both trying to weather the storm.
Peña proceeded to hurt Nunes and eventually dropping her. Then Peña had Nunes where she wanted her, sunk in a rear-naked-choke and claimed one of the most shocking victories in MMA history.
Nunes and Peña are set to serve as coaches opposite one another on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. After which they will rematch for the bantamweight title.
It will be the first time Nunes has been a challenger since she knocked out Cris Cyborg back in 2018 to claim the featherweight title, and surprisingly, it’s something Nunes is kind of excited about.