Rogan: Nunes Gassing Out Is Inexcusable

Amanda Nunes suffered her first loss in seven years last Saturday (Dec. 11, 2021) at UFC 269 in Las Vegas, Nevada after she was submitted by Julianna Pena in the second round of their women’s bantamweight title fight.

Immediately after the fight, some complained that “Lioness” tapped rather quickly to a chokehold that wasn’t all the way in, suggesting that she wanted a way out because she may have been gassed out. One man who was sitting cageside to see all the action was Joe Rogan, who was flabbergasted by seeing Nunes get tired so quickly.

In his assessment, that is simply inexcusable from a combatant many have as the pound-for-pound best female MMA fighter of all time.

“For you to be a world champion in two divisions and universally recognized as the greatest woman fighter of all time, which Amanda is, it’s inexcusable to be that tired in the second round,” Rogan said on his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast (transcribed by MMA Junkie).

Rogan suggests that perhaps Nunes underestimated the type of pressure Pena was going to bring into the cage with her. After making adjustments in round two, “The Venezuelan Vixen” started to push the pace, getting the better of Nunes in the striking exchanges, blooding up her nose and forcing her to step backward.

If Nunes did look past Pena, that could have been a major sticking point in her downfall that night.

“The thing is, one thing I did say leading up to the fight, as they were getting ready, you have to think of all the times where someone has underestimated someone,” Rogan added. “You can never underestimate an opponent. You can’t go into a fight not nervous. You can’t go into a fight completely sure you’re gonna win when that other person is hungry and scared, because weird things happen when people underestimate people. But f*ck, that was nuts.”

Of course, we can’t skip over the fact that Nunes tested positive for COVID-19 in July, which was the reason their fight in August at UFC 265 was scrapped. There have been cases where a fighter wasn’t able to return due to breathing and conditioning issues long after contracting and recovering from the virus.

For her part, Nunes has never offered up an excuse for the defeat, but she did say she plans on accepting an immediate rematch once she “gets her shit together.”