[Fanduel] UFC Legacies: Amanda Nunes
The career history of legendary fighter Amanda Nunes
Amanda Nunes is a record breaking MMA fighting champion. She has fought for Strikeforce, the UFC, and for Invicta FC. Nunes is the first openly lesbian fighter in the UFC and is married to one of the companies other fighters – Nina Nunes (née Ansaroff).
In this article, we are going to explore Nunes’ MMA fighting career so far, as well as looking at how she has impacted the sport.
The Strikeforce years
Nunes took part in 5 professional fights before joining the team at Strikeforce. She won all of them by knockout. She made her debut for the company in 2011. She fought Julia Budd and knocked her out in 14 seconds.
9 months later she fought Alexis Davis but lost via submission in the third round. A potential third and fourth fights for Strikeforce were canceled due to injuries. Nunes had been set to fight Julie Kedzie and Cat Zingano.
The Invicta FC years
Nunes joined Invicta FC in 2012 and was scheduled to fight at their second event. She was originally meant to fight Milana Dudieva but she pulled out. So, she was set up with Leslie Smith but she also pulled out. Eventually, Nunes ended up fighting Raquel Pa’aluhi, who Nunes beat by technical submission in the first round.
A year later, Nunes fought Sarah D’Alelio but was beaten in a unanimous decision. Later that year she was scheduled to fight Kaitlin Young but Nunes had to pull out because she had picked up an arm injury.
The UFC years
When Nunes joined the UFC her record was 7-2. As of right now, Nunes is 23-4. She is currently the reigning champion of the women’s Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions. She is the first woman ever to become a champion in more than one weight division. She is the third fighter ever to do it after Conor McGregor and Daniel Cormier.
Nunes debuted with the UFC in August 2013.
Nunes won her first two fights in the UFC via knockout – beating Sheila Gaff and Germaine de Randamie respectively.
In her third fight, she was beaten by Cat Zingano. After this, she went on to beat Shayna Baszler, Sara McMann, Valentina Shevchenko in a three fight streak.
This streak earned Nunes her first chance to fight for a title in the UFC. In 2016, she fought Miesha Tate for the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship. Nunes knocked her opponent out in the first round. Here she became the first openly gay champion in the history of the UFC.
Nunes defended her title against Ronda Rousey and knocked her out in 48 seconds. She went on to defend her title against Valentina Shevchenko and Raquel Pennington before moving to the Featherweight Division.
Nunes fought and knocked out the champion at the time, Cris Cyborg in 51 seconds. That year Nunes defended her Bantamweight title for the fourth time against Holly Holm. And she defended it for the 5th time against Germaine de Randamie.
She defended her Featherweight title against Felicia Spencer, winning by unanimous vote. Nunes defended it again against Megan Anderson in early 2021. She had to pull out of her next match after catching COVID-19 and is expected to fight next in December 2021.
Check out the UFC fight night odds for that fight here.
Nunes, the LGBTQA+ community, and the UFC
Perhaps Nunes’s biggest impact on the sport of MMA (despite being the most successful female UFC fighter ever) was the fact that she was the first openly gay woman to fight for the UFC.
Nunes states that she used to be very private about her life and sexuality until she received a letter from some parents thanking her for her representation and for inspiring their lesbian daughter to be brave.
After receiving this letter, Nunes said that she felt like she had the strength to be open about her private life. She was awarded the 2016 Equality Visibility Award.
Amanda Nunes met her now-wife in 2012. The pair got engaged in 2018 and welcomed a baby girl to the world in 2020. Her wife fights in the Strawweight division.
