Amanda Nunes just furthered her legacy and cemented her place as the most successful double champion in UFC history by putting on a display of utter dominance in all areas of the game against Megan Anderson. Despite being the clear underdog in all betting lines, Anderson represented a good challenge for Nunes as one of the few top-tier female mixed martial artists who has the correct frame to compete at Featherweight, being 6ft tall. Of course, the last two women to defeat Anderson, Felicia Spencer and Holly Holm, have both already fallen victim to Nunes shortly after defeating Anderson.
Even for the fans and journalists that saw this being a straightforward win for Nunes, there’s no way they could’ve predicted just how comfortable she would look in victory. She came out of her corner looking eager to get the early finish and completely negated Anderson’s reach advantage immediately, landing big punches and punishing leg kicks to keep pressure on her opponent. This forced Anderson to react and shoot for a takedown but Nunes stuffed the shot and used the momentum to put Anderson on her back before putting her BJJ black belt to good work. As Anderson tried to get back to her feet she gave up her back and Nunes wasted no time in transitioning to a Rear-Triangle Choke, extending her opponent’s arm to get the tap.
With this win, Amanda Nunes just continues to make her status as the most impressive double champion that much more undeniable. She’s now held the UFC Bantamweight title for nearly five years and the Featherweight title for a little over two, defending them five and two times respectively in that time. Meanwhile, Conor McGregor never made it into the cage to defend either of his titles, and Henry Cejudo and Daniel Cormier both only managed to defend their titles once apiece before the former retired and the latter was defeated.
As for the other three double champions, BJ Penn, Randy Couture, and Georges St-Pierre? They never held their titles at the same time and while they did have good runs in one division, none of them ever ended up defending their titles in the other. Not only is Nunes clearly the best female fighter the UFC has ever seen, she’s also their most dominant double champion and at only 32, that legacy is just going to keep growing for the foreseeable future. Coincidentally, UFC 259 saw Israel Adesanya make his move to join the ranks of double champions, although he could not replicate Nunes’ success as he ended up on the end of a convincing Decision loss against Jan Blachowicz.
Brutal!!! #UFC259 pic.twitter.com/MQHzH9ELxw
— UFC Español (@UFCEspanol) March 7, 2021
