UFC 277: Nunes Regains the Belt, Ankalaev and Pavlovich KO Opponents

Amanda Nunes dominantly regained her UFC bantamweight title, smashing Julianna Pena in the headliner of the UFC 277 last night in Dallas. The fans at the American Airlines Center had a chance to see a one-sided contest in which Lioness proved that, at the moment, there aren’t better rivals in this division than her.

“The lioness, if they don’t get the prey the first time, I set the trap and I know I’d get it the second time,” Nunes said in a postfight interview.

Nunes, who won via unanimous decision, sent Pena to the floor three times, all via knockdowns, and had six more takedowns. After the fight, the Venezuelan had a massive cut on her forehead, with the skin splitting and staying wide open. Dana White stated that Pena would visit the plastic surgeon to repair the damage. Now that is the best display of how big of a beating she endured.

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Nunes made certain adjustments compared to the previous fight. The Brazilian often changed stances, going southpaw, her cardio was far, far better, and this time, it was her who forced the rival to lose control and make mistakes. After that, Pena would try to redeem but almost always ended up eating a lot of beating.

“The main thing was my southpaw,” Nunes said. “I know I was gonna catch her with that tonight. I knew she was not gonna be able to adjust to that,” said Nunes.

She knocked down Pena three times in the second round, which was the most in the history of the ladies’ UFC. She now has 15 wins in the organization, the most of any female fighters, and this was her 10th title match, also the highest among the ladies. No need to explain further why many believe that the Brazilian is the best among all the ladies ever.

Nunes was confident right from the start and used hard punching to crack Pena’s defense. After she did that, the Lioness moved the focus to grapple and wrestling, often ending up in ground-and-pound situations where she punished the rival.

Though, we need to say that despite being outplayed, Pena didn’t back out for a second, and she always kept going forward, eating punches and trying to respond.

In other fights of the night, Brandon Moreno defeated Kai Kara-France for the second time. This time it was a KO in the third round, and we may see him facing Deiveson Figueiredo for the fourth time.

The heavyweight battle between Sergei Pavlovich and Derrick Lewis lasted 55 seconds. That is how long the Russian needed the break the Black Beast, who was pretty upset because of the judge’s decision to stop the bout. Lewis wasn’t in the position to defend himself, unlike his opinion.

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Pavlovich is back in the mix for big things right now, and don’t be surprised to see him headlining one event in the near future, against the winner of Tuivasa and Gane, for example.

Another Russian, Magomed Ankalaev, posted success last night. His light heavyweight bout against the former challenger, Anthony Smith, concluded in the second round, with Ankalaev knocking out Smith via punches. The Russian is in the mix for at least a title eliminator if not to become a challenger immediately.

Also, in another flyweight bout, Alexandre Pantoja was better than Alex Perez this Saturday, finishing the rival in the opening round, indicating that he too might step in and challenge Figueiredo.