Amanda Nunes Reveals the ‘Big Mistake’ That Cost Her the Fight Against Julianna Pena: “I Don’t Think It Would Look Good for Me”

Published 02/08/2022, 1:02 AM EST

UFC women’s featherweight champion Amanda Nunes suffered a stunning defeat to Julianna Pena at UFC 269. Now, she revealed that her pre-fight camp was responsible for her below the average performance that cost her the double champion status she enjoyed.

‘The Lioness’ went into the fight just like any other title defense. However, this time she wasn’t able to impose her dominant fighting style and got submitted by ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ in the second round.

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In a conversation with Brett Okamoto of ESPN, she revealed that her getting COVID before her fight affected her training camp and things just got worse from there onwards.

“Look back to my whole camp for this fight. Of course, it was a mess, you know. And I always wanna put in my head that it was okay, I can do this. So, because we are like that, you know. We wanna go through whatever, you know, to step in the cage,” Nunes told ESPN.

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“And my first fight against her fell through. I got COVID. So, all those things, you know. And in my second fight with her that can’t be like, I went through a couple issues as well that I always be really show up at the gym every day 100%. But like I didn’t wanna let that fight go again.”

“I don’t think it would look good for me. That was I feel like my big mistake. For that I don’t wanna look bad, you know. As let that fight go once again. So and I did pay for, I pay for my big mistake. I supposed to like listen to doctor. I supposed to listen my body,” Nunes continued.

Amanda Nunes reveals she wasn’t able to walk before UFC 269

At the beginning of the interview, Nunes (21-5) clarified, she doesn’t want to veil her poor performance with any excuses and take anything from her rival, Julianna Peña. However, she had a revelation to make.

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‘The Lioness,’ revealed that both of her knees gave up on her well before the fight. To top that, her condition was so bad that she wasn’t able to even walk properly post a training session.

“My both knee was pretty bad and always be able to recovery and I went through like every time that I training back home and then the next day I didn’t even walk. So, but like I don’t wanna make excuses. You know, it’s not like I did that, you know, I pay for my mistakes but like I wanna do a full camp and I didn’t,” Nunes told ESPN.

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What do you make of Nunes’ words about her UFC 269 pre-fight camp? Let us know in the comments below.

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Aashish Kumar is a UFC writer at EssentiallySports. A graduate in Journalism & Mass Communication, this Israel Adesanya fan has interned at reputed media houses and gained valuable reporting experience. Building on that experience, Aashish will look to tap into his love for combat sports and let fans benefit from his passion and journalistic expertise.

Amanda Nunes Reveals the ‘Big Mistake’ That Cost Her the Fight Against Julianna Pena: “I Don’t Think It Would Look Good for Me”

Amanda Nunes reveals she wasn’t able to walk before UFC 269

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