LAS VEGAS – Contrary to most MMA fighters, Amanda Nunes is actually not that interested in boxing.
Nunes (19-4 MMA, 12-1 UFC), the UFC featherweight and bantamweight champion, successfully defended her 135-pound title for the fifth time over the weekend with a unanimous decision win over Germaine de Randamie at UFC 245.
One person who was watching closely was boxing world champ Claressa Shields, who was actually flown in by UFC president Dana White to watch the fights cageside. Shields’ side has expressed interest in facing Nunes twice, in both a boxing match and an MMA fight.
But it appears the UFC double champ is game for only one.
“I’m an MMA fighter. Why she wants to take me from my sport?” Nunes said at the UFC 245 post-fight news conference. “If she wants to fight me, come to my world. It doesn’t make any sense. I respect her as a boxer, but I’m an MMA fighter. I don’t like to fight boxing. I like MMA. I like what I did today. If she handles that for five rounds, come see me.”
After surviving the early onslaught, de Randamie started finding some success on the feet before Nunes used her grappling to take over the fight. De Randamie had no answer for Nunes’ takedowns, and Nunes wonders how Shields would want to fight her after what transpired Saturday night.
“She saw tonight. I think she’s not gonna want anything to do with this,” Nunes said. “She wants to see me, I’m going to wrestle the (expletive) out of you and finish you with a jiu-jitsu submission. I want to see how she’s going to feel.”
Shields did say that she’d need more than six months to a year in order to prepare for an MMA fight with Nunes, but Nunes thinks it’s going to be way more than that for her to adapt.
“Six months to learn how to defend a takedown? Germaine six years, she didn’t even learn how to defend a takedown,” Nunes said. “You guys saw tonight, like don’t even listen to this girl, guys.”
Amanda Nunes not interested in boxing Claressa Shields: 'Come to my world' instead
