Julianna Pena is the new bantamweight champion of the world after she shockingly managed to dominate long-time titleholder Amanda Nunes tonight at UFC 269, beating her up on the feet before finishing her with a submission on the mat.
Round One:
Nunes with a low calf kick that drops Pena to the mat immediately! Pena takes her time and then gets back to her feet as Nunes stands over her.
Nunes into range and Pena lands a straight punch. Nunes with an oblique kick and then a jab that drops Pena.
Nunes standing over her and Pena seems clear eyed as she looks to potentially land upkicks. Nunes drops down on her looking to land punches. Pena manages to battle up onto her feet, but Nunes remains clinched up and brings her back down.
Pena gives up her back and Nunes gladly takes it and starts to work for a rear-naked choke. Pena tries to improve her position walking the cage. Pena scrambling to get half-guard. The action stalls from her momentarily. Pena now working for a kimura attempt.
Final 20 seconds of the round and Nunes is having to be cautious here as she continues to defend the kimura, only risking landing a few body punches. Pena gives up on the attempt just before the horn sounds.
Round Two:
Nunes feels out with a push kick. Pena threatening with a punch as Nunes steps into range.
leg kick for Nunes and Pena lands a jab in return. leg kick again for Nunes. Solid jab connects for Pena. That gives her confidence and she blasts Nunes with a hard left hand. Nunes a little dazed there and not defending as intelligently as usual.
Nunes trying to fire back hard, but Pena is doing a good job of connecting. It’s almost as if Nunes is not willing to accept that she’s coming off second-best in some of these exchanges so she’s not making any adjustments to protect herself.
Pena continues to crack Nunes with punches with the jab in particular continually finding a home. This is crazy. Nunes is tired and just eating punches left, right and center. Nunes still in denial here, trying to land something big that will change the momentum, but Pena has all the momentum right now and is not backing down.
Pena with more big punches and now works for a takedown. She gets it easily and as Nunes goes to her knees she sinks in a rear-naked choke. It’s not even that tightly secured yet, but Nunes is spent and taps out at 2.23mins of the second round.
What a crazy outcome, certainly one of the biggest upsets in UFC history! You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who would have picked Pena to get a finish here, and even fewer who would have dared to believe she could get the better of ‘The Lioness’ on the feet.
Big questions have to be asked about Nunes game-planning after she initially got hurt by Pena in the striking battle though as she just appeared to abandon her defensive responsibilities entirely and ended up getting tagged at will, which is very surprising from a striker of her caliber and proved to be a huge mistake.
Nonetheless, this will undoubtedly now set up an immediate rematch at some stage in 2022 that will attract a whole lot more interest than the lead-in to this fight.
