Nina Nunes regrets quick turnaround after childbirth, but finally feels rejuvenated ahead of UFC on ESPN 39

Nina Nunes experienced plenty of fight camps prior, but none with the adversity-filled circumstances like the lead-up to her April 2021 submission loss to Mackenzie Dern at UFC on ABC 2.

As she reflected on the defeat at a UFC on ESPN 39 pre-fight news conference Thursday in Las Vegas, Nunes (10-7 MMA, 4-4 UFC) did the math and concluded the quick submission loss kind of made sense.

“I took a little time off (before this upcoming fight),” Nunes told reporters including Fansided MMA. “I should’ve done it actually before I fought the first time after Raegan was born. But you learn your lesson. I got my body strong, back to where it needed to be. I’m here at 100 percent, feeling the best I’ve ever felt.”

Nunes and her wife, UFC women’s featherweight champion Amanda Nunes, welcomed a baby girl, Raegan, into the world in September 2020. Nina was the one who physically gave birth to Raegan. The physical toll, particularly in the aftermath, was greater than she anticipated.

“It wasn’t so much the chaos of the baby,” Nunes said. “It was physically. I had a really bad delivery. Right after Raegan was born, I was in the hospital two times within the first two times with infections, so those were pretty bad. Right before my fight with Mackenzie, I had a stent put in because I was having kidney stones. The week of my fight, I had to pass a kidney stone, so I was on medication. But you have that in your head where it’s just like, ‘No, these are the obstacles you have to go through and it’s all going to work out.’ That’s not the case all the time, so I fell on my face.

“Mackenzie was on a rip at the time, so that was a horrible decision on my part. I just kind of went in there hoping. It was also part watching Amanda do everything she was doing, while sitting on the sidelines. I had to take my head out of all that kind of stuff. Now, I’ve got to be good. I’ve got to be healthy. I’ve got to be happy. That’s where I am now. I’m excited.”

Initially, the plan was to return to strawweight but the way things went last time changed the game plan. Nunes returns for a flyweight bout Saturday against Cynthia Calvillo (9-4-1 MMA, 6-4-1 UFC) at UFC on ESPN 39.

“I was trying to go down to 115 again as soon,” Nunes said. “As soon as I started with the dieting and all that, the kidney stones came back. Anyone that’s had them will tell you they’re no joke. They’re extremely painful. There’s nothing you can really do about them. Coming into that, as I just started training more, they tell you, ‘Oh, don’t eat so much green vegetables, high protein causes…’ All of the things I needed to do to go to 115 were giving me kidney stones.

“The first time I had them was on top of breastfeeding and trying to lose that 70 pounds to get to 115. It was just a storm of things and I wasn’t going to do it to myself again and take the fight knowing I wasn’t feeling well. I talked to my doctor and I talked to Amanda about it. 125 is where I should’ve been for a long time. It was easy to pull the trigger then.”

Rejuvenated and feeling like herself again, Nunes is solely focused on comfortability. She thinks the results will come as long as she functions to her potential. Not looking too far ahead, Nunes is taking her fighting career one step at a time.

“I’m not so much worried about the results any more because I’ve beaten myself up over that before,” Nunes said. “I’ve come close. I was in a contender fight against Tatiana (Suarez). That week was horrible. I ended up getting strep throat. Things happen to me that now I just kind of laugh at. That fight kind of gave me that decision that I did want to stop and have a baby. You could say I was in the prime of my career when I did that, but I don’t regret it for a second.

“I do want more children, but I’m not going to say that this is my last fight. I’m going to go in there and fight with this new excitement that I have about how I’ve been feeling going up to 125 and just the energy of having a happy home life and having my dreams outside of the UFC happen. I’m just a happier person. That plays big in your performance.”

UFC on ESPN 39 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and streams on ESPN/ESPN+.