Saturday night we saw a thrilling lineup of fights the UFC offered to close out the year in style. Growing prospect of ‘Suga’ Shawn O-Malley continued his rise to stardom and Dustin Poirier lost his chance to cement himself as the best lightweight in the world after being chocked out in round 3 against Charles Oliveira.
Undoubtingly, the greatest upset was witnessing Julianna Pena defeat one, if not, the greatest woman’s champion – Amanda Nunes.
In what seemed to be a fight going into the former champions favour in the early round after dropping Pena with a jab, the heart of Pena and belief came into fusion when she started to land more devastating shots on Nunes in the second round.
The smile on Nunes’ face disappeared after getting cracked with combos from all different angles from Pena until what seemed like the tide was turning in Pena’s favour.
Fans were going wild on social media expressing how crazy it was to see Pena taking down the former champion who nobody ever saw losing. Pena was coming into the fight as the biggest underdog prior to entering the octagon.
As the pressure boiled over and Nunes trying to land every single shot with real power, the champ was too tired to defend herself.
Pena on the other hand seemed to get more into the fight as the fight went on. Nunes had no answers to the combination Pena was throwing which resulted in Nunes retreating to the cage and being completely gassed out.
Pena grabbed Nunes and took her straight to the ground and within seconds of securing a rear naked choke, Nunes tapped out and the crowd went insane. Pena had dethroned the champion Nunes after only 2 rounds.
When Pena was asked about the fight, her immediate reaction was, “I didn’t even know the fight was over. I asked the commissioner if the fight was over, and she said yeah.
“I was more surprised as to how quickly the fight ended because I thought it would last longer”.
Pena goes down in history as the first ever biological female to give birth to her daughter and become a UFC champion.
She expressed how nobody believed a word she said before going into the fight. Every person doubted her apart from her family and friends but she knew in her heart she had what it took to dethrone the former champion.
The president of the UFC, Dana White, was asked about the aftermath of the event, and he described it himself as “One of the biggest upsets in UFC history. That’s what I love about this sport.
“Nobody has a clue about what can happen, and I think that’s the main reason why people watch the UFC. You’re always on the edge of your seat and you just don’t know until the last bell rings”.
UFC closes its final chapter in outstanding fashion and Dana White has explained, if Nunes wants the fight Pena again, she can.
The UFC brings the biggest fights in January with the heavyweight champion on the line of former sparring partners Gane vs Ngannou.
Share your thoughts – what do you think of the fights that happened over the weekend and what fights are you eager to see in the upcoming year?
