Any of them could be right.
What we do know is that Nunes certainly didn’t look like the unstoppable juggernaut that has ruled the bantamweight and featherweight divisions simultaneously, piling up nine consecutive championship fight victories across two weight classes prior to stepping in against Pena at the end of last year.
Main Event Preview | UFC 277: Peña vs Nunes 2
She was hurried and wild; throwing rushed shots and looking to land bombs when her title reigns had been defined by an incredible ability to pick the right shot at the right time and land with force.
“I didn’t have a game plan for that fight, honestly,” admitted Nunes, who coached opposite Pena on Season 30 of The Ultimate Fighter in the build to this weekend’s main event rematch. “I was just thinking, ‘I’m going to step in and fight.’ I didn’t have any strategy.
“What went wrong in that fight was my timing was off and I got caught with a bunch of punches that I could have avoided if my timing was right,” she said when asked about that fateful December night when she was forced from the bantamweight throne. “I feel like if I had a plan and trained well, I would have been able to beat Julianna that night. I almost did, but it literally slipped from my hand that fight.”
In the immediate aftermath of the bout, Nunes contemplated retirement, and it’s easy to understand why.
She and her wife, UFC flyweight Nina Nunes, had welcomed their first child, a baby girl named Raegan, 16 months earlier, and the Brazilian superstar had already etched her name in the UFC record books many times over, crafting an incredible legacy inside the Octagon.
Nunes had accomplished everything she set out to accomplish — and then some — and had nothing left to prove inside the cage.
