End of an Era! This Saturday night, Amanda Nunes officially said goodbye to the UFC octagons. The Brazilian beat Mexican Irene Aldana in a bantamweight fight (61kg) at UFC 289, in Vancouver, Canada. Leona, as she is called, dominated the fight from beginning to end and took the victory by unanimous decision. After the announcement of the result, the double champion officially declared that she was retiring.
“Double champion forever! Today, if you look for it, I tied with Anderson Silva in number of belt defenses. So today is the perfect night to retire and live happily ever after”, declared the Brazilian after the fight. Next, Amanda Nunes left her two bantamweight and featherweight belts on the floor of the octagon, in addition to the gloves she wore in her farewell to the modality.
Aldana came in as a last-minute opponent for Nunes. Juliana Peña, opponent of Amanda’s last two fights and rival again for the title defense fight, had an injury problem and was withdrawn from the fight. With that, Amanda Nunes had to adapt to face a new opponent. “The adjustment happened, mainly in the ground fight. She’s very good with that (ground fight) and I went after rounding it out”, said the athlete.
The whole fight was about imposing strength and technique from Leona. Irene Aldana offered few dangerous moments for the champion, who knew how to control the first round well. In the second, even more imposing, Amanda applied well-placed crosses, leaving little room for the Mexican to evolve, even leaving her opponent twice on the ground.
In the third and fourth rounds, Amanda kept dictating the rhythm of the fight, abusing kicks and elbows. In the final round, Aldana landed a knee, but the champion managed to knock her opponent down, just managing the rest of the fight. The last fight for Amanda Nunes in her UFC career ended with a unanimous decision, with a score of 50-44, 50-44 and 50-43 for the Brazilian.
