mma / News

Amanda Nunes Believes She’ll Be the Greatest Female Fighter of All-Time If She Beats Cyborg

September 14, 2018 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

Amanda Nunes spoke with MMA Fighting ahead of her fight with Cris Cyborg at UFC 232 in December. Highlights are below:

On how excited she is for the chance to become the first woman to hold two titles simultaneously in the UFC: “This is the moment. There wasn’t much going on in both divisions, so I think this fight will make a lot of noise in women’s MMA in a way we haven’t seen before. I’m very anxious. If you’re going to fight the best fighters, you have to be prepared for a war, a highly-anticipated fight. That’s what matters, to put on a show for the fans and continue to make history.”

On if her achievement will be greater than Conor McGregor and Daniel Cormier being double champions: “I believe that going up a weight class already is a big achievement because several athletes are not willing to face that type of challenge. Going up and proving to myself I can do it and make history already is a big achievement. What Daniel and Conor did were great achievements, no matter if it was [against] a dominant champion or not. Fighting in a heavier weight class is a big achievement on its own. But when someone is so dominant, it does have a different taste, of course.”

On what made her change her mind about moving up: “The desire to challenge myself. We got a point in my division… I was chatting to my coaches, Nina (Ansaroff) was there as well, and this idea came up. Din Thomas told me, ‘You have to do something different, you have to make history,’ something like that, and I said he was right. Some time after, Din Thomas said in an interview, ‘Amanda will fight Cris.’ I was like, ‘You know what, man, that conversation happened for a reason.’ It’s happened at the right time because my division is still moving and still needs some fights to really decide the next top contender for me. Cris’ division has nothing happening as well, there’s no one in that division, and the UFC kind of has its hands tied with that division. There are no big fights, too. I think it makes sense for the 135-pound champion to fight the 145-pound champion. There’s a lot of expectations around this fight. There’s no problem — it’s not about seeing who’s more Brazilian or who’s more patriotic, it’s about continuing to make history.”

On whether she expects to be seen as the greatest female fighter of all-time if she wins: “For sure. That’s the reason why I made this decision to move up a division. I want fans to remember me like that. Winning on December 29, I won’t ever leave fans’ heads, that’s for sure. Achieving that, being the only Brazilian woman to become two-division champion… The only woman, the only Brazilian, will be a huge achievement. It’s a big fight, a fight that will make history, and I will come out victorious one more time.”

On if she’s 100% already from her injury: “For sure. You need to prepare for every fight. Ever since I got to the UFC, I’m fighting at 135 and my body is adapted to that weight. To move up to another division, it’s whole other work. I won’t be fighting a nobody, I’ll be fighting Cris. She’s heavier out of camp, so imagine me fighting her tomorrow with my body adapted to 135, and her body already adapted to her weight class. I needed more time to make it happen, to adapt to 145 and make it a fair fight. I had a foot injury as well, so I was still coming back to training, to kicking, doing physical therapy, but it’s all good now. I’m training and waiting for the right moment.”

On her current weight: “I will only move up a little bit [in weight], I won’t move up that much. I will move up to be well at 145. I’m weighing around 165 today. It’s not my intention to continue to move up, but to train well and comfortable at the weight I will be the day after the weigh-ins.”

On if Cyborg is her toughest opponent: “We’ll see. MMA is full of surprises, right? I haven’t fought Cris yet, so I will be able to answer that after the fight.”

On Cyborg’s evolution: “Cris is evolving a lot, she’s not [fighting] with zero technique anymore. She’s more technical now, more patient, so she has evolved a lot.”

article topics :

Amanda Nunes, UFC 232, Jeremy Thomas