UFC featherweight Dan Hooker believes former women’s bantamweight titleholder Amanda Nunes bought into her own hype heading into her first fight with Julianna Peña.
Peña dethroned Nunes at UFC 269 in December, submitting “The Lioness” in the second round. With the win, Peña took home the belt and scored one of the biggest upsets in the promotion’s history.
“I think she (Nunes) just drank the kool-aid,” Hooker said during his UFC 277 breakdown with middleweight champion Israel Adesanya on YouTube. “I think she just watched videos and listened to all the people being like, ‘you’re just going to waster her. You’re going to bash her.’ And believed it.”
Nunes and Peña rematch in the UFC 277 main event at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Saturday. Hooker doesn’t anticipate the rematch looking anything like their first encounter.
“I think Nunes just takes it serious this fight. Boom! Knockout,” Hooker predicted.
Dan Hooker thinks Amanda Nunes bought into her own hype before loss to Julianna Peña
