Amanda Nunes, the undisputed greatest female fighter of all time, has been dominating two weight classes for so long that one would be forgiven for thinking that she would simply never lose. I’ll admit – I fell into that category. Over a win streak that lasted nearly seven years, Nunes beat most of the all-time greats: Valentina Shevchenko (twice), Cris Cyborg, Holly Holm, Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Germaine de Randamie.
Nunes had cleared out both the bantamweight and featherweight divisions, and you had to really rack your brain to envision a challenger coming up and beating her. Shevchenko, perhaps, in a third fight? Maybe Kayla Harrison at 145? Certainly not…… Julianna Pena?
Julianna Pena. +640 underdog. A recent mother. A fighter just two fights removed from being guillotine choked unconscious by de Randamie, a complete non-grappler. A tough, gritty fighter, but whose stand-up style has been described as “wine-mom boxing.” Julianna Pena is going to be the woman to dethrone Amanda Nunes?
Only in MMA.
It’s easy to forget that Nunes wasn’t always perfect. She has losses on her record to fighters like Cat Zingano, Sarah D’Alelio and Alexis Davis. The thing that has separated her throughout her run of dominance was her game-breaking power, which has intimidated many an opponent and kept them right where Nunes wanted them. But what happens when a fighter isn’t afraid of the pop and puts the pressure on Nunes? In that case, we found that even a non-special talent like Pena can pull the upset.
Nunes was hunting the knockout the entirety of that wild second round, showing absolutely no respect for Pena on the feet. But she found that Pena was tougher than she expected – and also found that she was ill-prepared for Pena coming directly at her, popping her with the jab repeatedly and forcing the issue in every exchange. Suddenly, by the middle of the second round, the champ was gassed. Pena got the takedown against the fence, took Nunes’ back, and wrapped up one of the biggest upsets in MMA history.
I’ve seen some people try to downplay the magnitude of this upset, saying it’s really not one of the all-timers. And while a few commentators – Luke Thomas, most notably – cautioned that Nunes could finally lose on Saturday night, that was mostly speculation based on the grinding inertia of greatness, rather than any credit to Pena’s skill.
It is, in fact, very hard to conquer all comers year after year after year. Eventually the physical gap begins to close, or your priorities in life start to shift. But it seemed inconceivable that an unfancied fighter like Pena would be the one to beat Nunes. There are very few parallels to a fighter on Nunes’ level of dominance losing to someone where Pena is on the totem pole.
Holm’s upset of Rousey is commonly regarded as the biggest upset in women’s MMA history, but Holm was undefeated and an all-time great in her original combat sport (boxing). Anderson Silva‘s loss to Chris Weidman was a stunner, but Weidman was also undefeated and considered at the time to be the best middleweight prospect to come around in quite a while. Even other shockers like Fedor–Werdum and BJ Penn–Frankie Edgar came with a challenger who had acclaimed ability.
To me, the only upset quite like this in a UFC title fight came in 2007, and it’s often considered the biggest upset in MMA history. Matt Serra was a career .500 fighter in the UFC when he was tapped to compete in The Ultimate Fighter 4, which had a special twist: for the first time, they would feature veteran UFC fighters whose careers had failed to take off, and the winners would get world title shots. Serra barely squeaked through the welterweight bracket, beating Chris Lytle via a controversial split decision in the finals.
His reward was a fight with Georges St-Pierre, then the most remarkable talent to hit the UFC in years, who had just topped Matt Hughes to become the welterweight champion. Even then, we knew GSP was going to be an all-time great. Serra’s only shot was to come out swinging and pray he clipped him.
Only in MMA.
For that generation of MMA fans – and for me, this is around when I first started getting into the sport, Serra-GSP I was the “anything can happen in MMA” moment of the era. And for this generation, Julianna Pena just gave us another one that was almost as implausible.
Just when you think you know what’s going to happen, something will always come around to remind you that you know nothing. That’s why MMA is the greatest, dumbest sport in the world.
The Big Fight 