Monday Morning Hangover: What’s Next?!?!?!?!?!?

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

UFC 250 went down this past weekend (Sat., June 6, 2020) in Las Vegas, Nevada, with Amanda Nunes dominating Felicia Spencer for 25 minutes en route to scoring a lopsided unanimous decision win to retain her women’s Featherweight title. Despite Spencer’s toughness, Nunes once again proved she is simply on a different level.

And she’s been doing that for some time now, laying waste to anyone who has crossed her path over the last six years. And they were the biggest names in women’s mixed martial arts (MMA). Who else can say they’ve beaten Valentina Shevchenko (twice) Ronda Rousey, Meisha Tate, Holly Holm and Cris Cyborg? No one … and no one else ever will but Nunes.

Her dominant reign is similar to Jon Jones’ streak, taking everyone out left and right to the point of nearly cleaning out the Featherweight and Bantamweight divisions. But unlike Jones, she doesn’t have the luxury of moving up or down a weight class to conquer new territory because she is already the 135-pound champion.

Awkward.

She can’t drop down further since she is too big for Flyweight, so that’s out of the question. For now, it’s 135 and 145, but first an extended, well-deserved break to welcome her first baby alongside her partner and fellow UFC fighter, Nina Ansaroff.

“A break for sure,” Nunes said following her victory. “The baby come in three months. I have to organize a lot of things, her room. I have to do so many things and I really need a break now. I think maybe off for sure. I have to do a couple things and be ready for my baby.

“I’m very happy, I just can’t wait to see my baby,” she continued. “Life is perfect. I’m just loving this fun ride and the joy of every single day, trying to be a good person and knowing life will give it back. I don’t want to do bad for anybody. I just want to keep making history.”rot bu[

The good news is UFC will now have ample time to try and figure out what makes sense for “Lioness.” At Bantamweight, she’s already defeated most of the top contenders, and it would be a hard sell to try and convince her to give one of them a rematch. At Featherweight, there’s not a whole lot to choose from, and the one person she would give a rematch to, Cris Cyborg, is long gone.

And while it seems Megan Anderson is the front-runner to get the next title shot at 145 pounds with two straight wins, the promotion still has to take a long, hard look at its plans for the division moving forward. Is it time to close up shop or start signing some talent across the globe to finally get enough fighters to make a Top 15 list?

For the immediate future, the only thing Nunes will be fighting is her sleep once her baby arrives, while UFC matchmakers may also have some sleepless nights trying to come up with ways to keep the champ-champ motivated — and properly compensated — in 2021.