Amanda Nunes to defend featherweight belt at UFC 256
UFC dual-division champion Amanda Nunes will make the second defense of her featherweight title when she squares off against Megan Anderson at UFC 256 in December. The news has been confirmed by multiple sources, following an initial report by ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.
Nunes is widely considered to be one of the best fighters in history, regardless of gender. On an 11-fight winning streak, those victories include wins over the likes of Cris Cyborg, Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, Germaine de Randamie, Valentina Shevchenko, and numerous other top mixed martial artists.
This will be the second defense of Nunes’s UFC featherweight championship, which she most recently defended against Felicia Spencer at UFC 250 in June. She has also defended her UFC bantamweight title on five occasions, having held that belt since defeating Tate on July 9, 2016.
Nunes had talked like she might take and extended break or even retire following her victory over Spencer in June, as she and her partner and fellow UFC fighter Nina Ansaroff are expecting their first child in September. She has obviously opted not to call it a career with the fight at UFC 256 to close out a tumultuous 2020.
Anderson, a former Invicta FC featherweight champion, had been expected to quickly move into a position to challenge for the UFC featherweight title when she signed with the promotion in 2018. She, however, lost her debut bout to Holm.
The Australian fighter bounced back with a win over Cat Zingano, but then stumbled against Felicia Spencer.
Anderson finally earned her shot at Nunes with back-to-back victories over Zarah Fairn Dos Santos and Norma Dumont Viana. Her most recent victory was over Viana in February of this year. All three of her UFC victories have come in the first round.
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Check out Amanda Nunes’s recent UFC 250 victory over Felicia Spencer
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