Nina Ansaroff Calls On Critics Of Amanda Nunes To ‘Support The Sport’

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Nina Ansaroff, UFC strawweight and girlfriend of bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, called out the critics of the champion for pulling out of her fight with Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 213 due to sinusitis. The fight was rescheduled for UFC 215, which happens tonight. Here are highlights:

On MMA fans needing to respect the sport: “There were a lot of negative comments after her fight. She didn’t really look into them – I did. I never mentioned them to her, but in passing, I would make sure we trained a little extra hard, just to shut every one up. People don’t respect the sport as much as they should. The fans are very iffy in this sport, which his just unfortunate.”

On not looking at the sport the same way: “I feel like in other sports, you should just stick by your athletes. Sometimes they’re sick, sometimes they don’t perform well, sometimes they’re the best in the world. But it’s a hard sport to stay doing it for the fans, because they’re so negative sometimes. Of course, you get those passionate ones that are there for you – that keeps you going. That makes it more enjoyable. But I just feel like the fans need to lay off a little, or stop being such keyboard warriors and pretending you’re this person behind the screen. Support the sport.”