One of the biggest upsets in UFC history might have been a
surprise in the moment for Peña, but she had never stopped believing she could
do the nearly impossible.
“Everybody was sleeping on me, and I shook up the world and
did exactly what I said I was going to do,” Peña said. “But I’m not surprised.
I have a big heart and determination.”
Peña stopped Nunes by submission with a rear naked choke in
the second round at UFC 269 on Saturday night, claiming the bantamweight title
from the long-reigning two-division champion in a 10-to-1 upset.
Charles Oliveira also defended his lightweight title for the
first time with a third-round stoppage victory over Dustin Poirier by standing
rear naked choke in the main event.
But the night belonged to Peña (11-4), who was a massive
underdog against a vaunted opponent widely considered the greatest fighter in
the history of women’s mixed martial arts. Nunes had won 12 consecutive fights
since 2014 and reigned simultaneously atop the 135-pound bantamweight and
145-pound featherweight divisions for three years.
“Amanda has been such a great champion, and she’s done a ton
for the sport,” Peña said. “For me to be able to take out arguably the greatest
of all time is something that’s still sinking in right now.”
After Nunes largely dominated the first round with two
knockdowns and superior striking, Peña shockingly hurt Nunes with punches in a
slugfest start to the second round. Peña then got Nunes to the ground, got her
back and forced the champion to tap out with a choke around her neck with 1:38
left.
“It feels crazy,” Peña said. “I definitely expected to win,
but the world is my oyster.”
Peña had won just two of her four fights over the past 5 1/2
years, and the Spokane native who trains in Chicago got the title shot as one
of the few legitimate 135-pound fighters that Nunes hadn’t already beaten. Peña
didn’t fight for 30 months from 2017 to 2019 while giving birth to her
daughter, but she won two of her three ensuing bouts to get this shot.
“Julianna is a person who always believed in herself and
believed that she could win this fight if she got it,” UFC President Dana White
said. “You heard her for months leading up to this fight, and she did it. It’s
one of the things that makes this sport so incredible. An upset like this,
where you can’t believe it, it happens all the time here.”
Nunes was fighting for only the third time in two years
after making two featherweight defenses since her most recent defense of her
bantamweight belt in December 2019. Few opponents had even given her a stiff
challenge since her second victory over current flyweight champ Valentina
Shevchenko by split decision in 2017.
Nunes is almost certain to be granted a rematch with Peña,
who is eager to grant it: “We can do it next week. I’m free next week. I’m free
next month.”
After Peña’s upset, Oliveira (32-8, 1 no-contest) survived a
rough fight with Poirier (28-7, 1 no-contest) to improve to 10-0 with nine
stoppage victories since 2017.
Poirier battered the champ with punches in the first round
and knocked him down twice, but Oliveira took control on the ground in the
second round with a series of vicious elbows. He finished the fight with 3:58
left in the third by attaching himself to Poirier’s back and forcing him to tap
while standing up.
“We respect each other a lot,” Oliveira said through a
translator. “But I was going to have my arm raised, and that’s what happened.
... I want to make history. I want to leave a legacy, and I plan to show people
that I can.”
Oliveira finally claimed the belt last May in his 28th UFC
fight -- the longest wait for a title in the promotion’s history and the
culmination of an epic journey by a Brazilian veteran who overcame poverty and
childhood illness to become an elite jiu-jitsu practitioner and mixed martial artist.
Oliveira set the UFC record for stoppage victories by
beating Michael Chandler with punches, and his finish of Poirier increased the
record to 18. Oliveira’s 10-fight winning streak is the second-longest active
string in the UFC, trailing only Kamaru Usman’s 15 straight.
Oliveira and White both said the champ’s next defense is
likely to be against Justin Gaethje, the entertaining brawler who held the
interim title in 2020.
Poirier already had a spectacular 2021 with his two
victories over Conor McGregor, erasing the vaunted former champion’s winning
mystique and making two enormous paychecks for decisive stoppage wins.
Poirier’s only other loss in his last 11 fights since 2016 was to Khabib
Nurmagomedov, who took away Poirier’s interim lightweight title before retiring
undefeated.
“It ruins the dream outcome that I had planned, to forever be a world champion after tonight,” Poirier said. “But the year isn’t ruined. An opportunity I had is ruined, and that’s all right. It is what it is. I’ll look in the mirror like a man.” - AP