Chael Sonnen isn’t calling Amanda Nunes a quitter per se, but he thinks she mentally checked out during her fight with Julianna Pena.
Nunes (21-5 MMA, 14-2 UFC) shockingly lost her bantamweight title Saturday when she was submitted by Peña (11-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC) in the co-main event of UFC 269 in what is widely being considered as one of the greatest upsets in the promotion’s history.
After controlling Peña for the majority of Round 1, Nunes started to slow down in the second round when Peña poured on the pressure. Nunes appeared to be gassed out and quickly tapped out to a rear-naked choke that hadn’t really been applied tightly just yet. With Nunes having gone five rounds on numerous occasions, Sonnen thinks she mentally broke in the fight.
Julianna Pena moves in with a punch against Amanda Nunes during UFC 269 at T-Mobile Arena. (Stephen R. Sylvanie, USA TODAY Sports)
“I can’t believe I got Peña right either,” Sonnen said. “I got to tell you, man, that was a different fight. Like, we’ve seen upsets before. Even if you take Mike Tyson vs. Buster Douglas where Mike is trying to get up, and he just can’t beat the count or when Ronda Rousey got her head kicked into the third row, but she didn’t want it to happen. This was totally different. Amanda flicked it. That was 100 percent mental beating, zero percent physical. That submission wasn’t there.
He continued, “That was not a move. That was absolutely not a fighting technique. Julianna was in a terrible position, and Amanda quit. That’s OK. Everybody goes through that at some point. I only point that out not to kick her, I point that out because that’s what the surprise was. If she got kicked like Ronda did or knocked out like Mike did, we just chalk it up to a big upset and a glorious night. To mentally check out and hand it all back in only seven minutes, a bit of a surprise.”
Nunes admitted after the fight that she might not have been fully prepared and said she “checked out.”
In the UFC 269 post-fight press conference, Peña said she’d be open to an immediate rematch with Nunes, who stills holds the UFC featherweight title.