By Cassandra Cousineau of LVSportsBiz.com
UFC 269 is making history in Las Vegas Saturday.
It’s the first time in the history of Las Vegas-based UFC that two mothers will meet in a championship match.
The champion, Amanda Nunes, and her wife, fellow UFC fighter Nina, welcomed their daughter Reagan in September of 2020. Her opponent Julianna Peña’s daughter Issa was born in January of 2018.
Nunes is a heavy betting favorite to win and more than a 10-to-1 favorite in several Las Vegas sportsbooks.
However, if there was a title for the Baddest Mom On The Planet, Nunes would also claim that title.
The undisputed bantamweight and featherweight champion isn’t the one you’d want to have a dispute with in the carpool lane. She has a special way of addressing altercations, and it doesn’t end well for opponents. On Saturday evening at T-Mobile Arena, which just hosted a Vegas Golden Knights game Friday and has another VGK game Sunday, Nunes will step into the octagon against Pena for her 26th professional cage fight.
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The Lioness has defended belts in two divisions since dismantling the once unbeatable Cris Cyborg Justino in a mere 51 seconds of the first round to become the new UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion in December 2018.
Nunes has already etched her name in the record books, becoming the first “double champ” in UFC history to successfully defend each of their two belts while simultaneously holding both titles.
During her climb, one of American Top Team’s star pupils has beaten six current or former UFC champions and has become the longest reigning current UFC belt holder, outpacing soon to be Hall-of-Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov by more than a year. Her featherweight title reign is tied for the fourth longest active reign with Jon Jones.
In July 2016, she submitted Miesha Tate at UFC 200 to capture the bantamweight title. Adding the featherweight championship cemented her status as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC’s women’s division.
Despite all she’s achieved, the powerhouse’s most coveted title is that of mother.
Although their fighting cage jobs are unique, both Nunes and wife Nina are both working moms.
Nunes has talked extensively about the sacrifices her own mother made for her as a child while she was pursuing her dream to become the best fighter in the world. Just like most children, it wasn’t always easy for the 33-year-old to understand the depth of those sacrifices.
LVSportsBiz.com asked the Brazilian born champ-champ about how her perspective has changed since becoming a mother.
“Now, I know everything, what my mom tell me all the time. Nina’s that too,” Nunes told LVSportsBiz.com’
With that journey has come wisdom which is informing her wishes for her one-year-old daughter Reagan. “If you’re asking me will she be a fighter? I’m not gonna lie to you no! I can not see my daughter getting hit in the face.”
She continued, “So, now I know. Growing up, my mom did everything. Now, I wanna do the same. Anything that I can do to make Raegan happy. I’m willing to do. Living with Raegan 24/7 is just happy and unbelievable. I can’t wait for the next step of her life.”
Even with her ferocious dismantling of opponents, Nunes is known as one of the most pleasant and professional interviews among UFC fighters, Nunes has a new lightness and palpable joy about her since becoming a mother.
Still, the next step isn’t going to be a baby one for her. She has to face a formidable foe in Peña who has been the most vocally adversarial opponent of the champ’s career. The fire is welcomed. Their meeting was originally scheduled for August 7, 2021 at UFC 265.
But Nunes tested positive for COVID-19 on July 29, 2021. The bout was rescheduled to UFC 269 on December 11, 2021.
“She doesn’t welcome it,” Peña said during one of their heated fightweek exchanges. “She didn’t show up.”
Nunes replied: “Of course I took longer. I got COVID. I had to recover, of course. I don’t need to lie. Like, why? Why am I going to lie, I got COVID? I did. I had it, I recovered. Now I’m here, ready to go, ready to kick Julianna’s ass.
I’m the kind of fighter, I don’t play with my opponents I’m always focusing and I know I have 25 minutes to finish her. I just have to take my time and pick the shots at the right times and finish the fight. No matter what she shows up with on Saturday night, I’m going to have the answers and I will finish her. — UFC two-belt champion Amanda Nunes
“We will find out Saturday night,” Peña responded. “One of us is going to be dead wrong. We will see.”
The promotion has come a long way since its bossman, Dana White, declared women would never fight in UFC. “I don’t know if I ever didn’t think that it could be this big. I just never thought the level of skill and technique these women have would be some of the baddest fights in the UFC. So, thank God I made this decision. I’m very happy about it.”
Credit Peña for hyping the fight. But this battle of the moms can only have one winner — and Nunes isn’t looking for any other outcome than And Still Champion.