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Ranking the GOAT's fights: The top 5 matches in Amanda Nunes' storied career – ESPN – ESPN
It’s a rare treat to witness a performance by the greatest in a sport’s history.
It is especially rare in the case of Amanda Nunes. The GOAT of women’s MMA will be making her first appearance of 2023 when she headlines UFC 289 on Saturday in Vancouver, British Columbia (main card on ESPN+ PPV at 10 p.m. ET, prelims at 8 p.m. and early prelims at 6:30, both on ESPN/ESPN+). Nunes hasn’t fought since July, her only bout of 2022. She competed twice in 2021 and also only once in 2020.
So it will be just her fifth fight in 2½ years when Nunes (22-5), the UFC’s only current two-division champion, puts her bantamweight title on the line against Irene Aldana (14-6). Aldana will be looking to add to the championship luster of Mexican MMA, which already this year has seen the crowning of two UFC titleholders in men’s flyweight Brandon Moreno and women’s 125-pounder Alexa Grasso.
To bring another belt south of the border, Aldana must overcome a rejuvenated Nunes. The 34-year-old Brazilian, who trains in South Florida, regained her 135-pound belt last summer in a rematch with Julianna Peña, who had dethroned her in December 2021, ending a 12-fight winning streak. Deposed champions don’t tend to fare well in immediate rematches with their conquerors, but Nunes seized full command right from the start to show Peña — and the MMA world — who belongs at the top of the marquee.
There’s also star power in Saturday’s co-main event at Rogers Arena, which features the most accomplished submission artist the UFC has ever seen. Charles Oliveira, who has a record 16 submissions inside the Octagon, will be competing for the first time since losing the lightweight championship to Islam Makhachev in October. That defeat ended an 11-fight winning streak. Oliveira (33-9, 1 NC) will take on Beneil Dariush (22-4-1), a winner of eight in a row who has tapped out only once in his career — seven years ago.
Beyond the women’s title bout and the high-stakes clash of top-10 lightweights, there is little name recognition on the UFC 289 card but some significant personal stakes — especially for a pair of fighters looking to bounce back. Flyweight David Dvorak, who has lost two in a row after running off a 16-fight winning streak, faces onetime top-10 fighter, Matt Schnell. Also, middleweight Nassourdine Imavov, who had won nine of his previous 10 before a short-notice loss in January to Sean Strickland, will look to get back on track against Strickland’s close friend and training partner Chris Curtis.
Typically during a fight week, we would put all of these matchups in a hat, shake it up and spill out a ranking. But let’s not kid ourselves. Saturday’s main event is not simply the No. 1 attraction at UFC 289; it emits the far-reaching radiance of a top 10 all by itself.
Nunes is a champion among champions, boasting the longest combined title reign (creeping up on 4,000 days) of any titlist in UFC history, man or woman. Of the UFC’s five champ-champs, she was the first to defend titles in both divisions while holding the two belts. Nunes has the most UFC title defenses (10) of any woman and owns nine victories over former or current UFC champs — Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, Valentina Shevchenko (twice), Holly Holm, Germaine de Randamie (twice), Cris Cyborg and Peña.
So that’s what we’ll rank: the greatest fights in the storied career of the greatest fighter.
UFC 232, Dec. 29, 2018
The consensus coming in among pundits and fans was that Nunes, the bantamweight champ, had maybe bit off more than she could chew by challenging Cyborg for the featherweight belt. Cyborg had long been the gold standard of the women’s game. In going unbeaten through 21 fights over a decade since dropping her 2005 pro debut, the Brazilian buzzsaw had bullied fighters her own size — so what would she do to the undersized Nunes? Not a thing, as it turned out. Nunes immediately showed off faster hand speed, knocking down Cyborg four times on the way to a 51-second knockout. Goodbye to the old GOAT, and meet the new GOAT.
UFC 207, Dec. 30, 2016
Rousey had taken more than a year off following her shocking upset at the hands (and left foot) of Holly Holm, and during that time, the bantamweight title had changed hands twice — from Holm to Miesha Tate, then from Tate to Nunes. Now “Rowdy Ronda” was returning — although only for the fight itself, as she declined to make any prefight promotional appearances. Still, the UFC built the entire hype fest around Rousey, mainly ignoring its reigning champion. Nunes was frustrated by that, and she took it out on Rousey, hurting her with the first punch of the fight and proceeding to land shot after shot — she couldn’t miss — before the referee jumped in to mercifully end the beatdown after just 48 seconds.
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes defends her title against Irene Aldana.
Buy UFC 289 on ESPN+ PPV
UFC 289: Nunes vs. Aldana
Sat., Jun. 10, Rogers Arena, Vancouver, Canada
• Main card: 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV
• Prelims: 8 p.m. on ESPNews/ESPN+
• Early Prelims: 6 p.m. on ESPN/ESPN+
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UFC 196, Mar. 5, 2016
This was the first of two fights between Nunes and Shevchenko, both Nunes victories. While the 2017 rematch ended in a split decision that’s still being debated, this one was a clear Nunes win — although it was her first UFC victory that did not end in a finish.
Neither woman was a UFC champion at the time, but this performance boosted Nunes into a title shot. Following their second meeting a year and a half later, Shevchenko moved to flyweight, where she soon began a title reign of nearly 4½ years.
UFC 200, Jul. 9, 2016
After nearly a decade as a pro, Nunes finally became a UFC champion — the first woman from Brazil to do so. She hurt Tate with punches early, bloodying her face before Round 1 was halfway over. Then Nunes took the fight to the canvas and locked in a rear-naked choke. And new.
UFC 277, July 30, 2022
The final spot in our ranking was between this fight and Nunes’ 2019 bout with Holly Holm, which ended with a stunning head-kick KO. But the rematch with Peña cannot be ignored because it showed that Nunes was not diminished by her upset loss seven months earlier. Who knows how much longer we will have “The Lioness” around? Her big moments — such as this reentry into the rarefied land of the UFC champ-champ — are to be cherished.
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In the ever-shifting MMA landscape, ranking the world’s greatest fighters might seem like a fool’s errand, but that’s exactly we’ve set out to do with the MMA Fighting Global Rankings. Here, our esteemed panel sorts out the movers and shakers from every division to provide you with the most definitive list of the best fighters on the planet.
Let’s take a look at the biggest rankings storylines from this past two-month cycle (Aug. 21 – Oct. 24).
(Ed. Note: These rankings are updated as of Nov. 20, 2023.)
Here’s what I wrote about the then-unranked Khamzat Chimaev back in August:
Fear not, Khamzat fans, should he get past Paulo Costa at UFC 294 as expected, you’ll see him snatch a cherry spot in the middleweight rankings. Until then, everyone’s favorite wrecking machine remains in limbo.
Suffice to say, things did not go quite as expected.
The good news is that Chimaev did end up fighting at UFC 294, and in an actual established weight class. The bad news is that it wasn’t against an established middleweight, but rather former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman stepping in on 10 days’ notice.
Chimaev ultimately beat Usman in a fight where he was dominant for the first five minutes and then shaky for the next 10. The result was a majority decision where one judge scored the fight a 28-28 draw, a fair score given that Chimaev had a difficult time mustering up any meaningful offense against Usman in Rounds 2 and 3. If anything, it looked as though Usman was the one building up steam as the bout came to a close, and he later lamented the lack of championship rounds, something he’d understandably grown accustomed to.
Still, a win is a win, and though our panel wasn’t quite ready to rocket him up the charts (one panelist even left him off their ballot completely), Chimaev slots in at No. 10 in his first appearance on our middleweight rankings. This may turn out to be a case of “ranking, shmankings” anyway, because UFC CEO Dana White said in the lead-up that the winner of UFC 294’s co-main event was expected to challenge champion Sean Strickland.
White wasn’t quite as emphatic when asked about that status after the fight, but regardless, Chimaev is well on his way to finally getting the chance to “smesh” someone for a belt.
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It was a fun rivalry while it lasted, wasn’t it?
In an ideal world, Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski’s second meeting would have occurred a little later in their careers, with Makhachev racking up a couple of title defenses against actual lightweights first and Volkanovski continuing his incredible championship run at featherweight. But there’s something neat about these two settling the score in a single calendar year, even if it happened under less-than-ideal circumstances and even if it resulted in Makhachev delivering a brutal head-kick knockout to win the series.
Could Volkanovski have performed better with a full camp? Undoubtedly. Does the best version of Volkanovski beat Makhachev in their rematch? That, we don’t know, but the reality is they’ve met twice in the octagon and twice Makhachev has been the better man. Accept this and move on, is my advice.
That’s what’s best for the lightweight division, with Makhachev hopefully sticking around at 155 pounds to defend against Charles Oliveira or Justin Gaethje or maybe even past opponent Arman Tsarukyan somewhere down the line. Makhachev has also spoken about moving up to welterweight in the event that Colby Covington takes that title from Leon Edwards, which would undoubtedly intrigue the matchmakers (even if might make a few fans’ eyes roll).
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There was a time when light heavyweight and women’s bantamweight were marquee divisions. I swear this was a thing.
While there may be no hope for women’s 135 (Julianna Peña vs. Raquel Pennington for the vacant title when?), 205 has been sooooo close to being great again. However, injuries to stars Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill led to a calamitous series of events that have left the light heavyweight title in limbo, and though it should find a home soon when Prochazka fights Alex Pereira for a vacant strap at UFC 295 next month, would anyone be shocked if more craziness ensued?
That was certainly the case this past Saturday when Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker met in a pivotal bout that was sure to crown the next challenger for the aforementioned title, but it just couldn’t be that easy. No, the fighters had to deal with a restless ringside physician who was compelled to interject himself into not one, but two fights in Abu Dhabi. In Walker’s case, he saw his night end unceremoniously when the doctor ruled that he was unable to continue after taking an illegal knee from Ankalaev despite Walker’s protests.
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Blame the doctor all you want, but it just feels like this division has been cursed since Prochazka vacated the title last November after suffering a shoulder injury. We’re all praying that his fight with Pereira has a conclusive result, but at this point I’m expecting them to land simultaneous spinning head kicks and both to end up flat on the canvas.
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Check out the complete October rankings update below.
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 3 Ciryl Gane def. No. 10 Serghei Spivac, No. 8 Alexander Volkov def. No. 7 Tai Tuivasa
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic (UFC 295, Nov. 11), No. 6 Jailton Almeida vs. No. 14 Derrick Lewis (UFC Sao Paulo, Nov. 4)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Phil De Fries (5), Alexandr Romanov (2)
(Heavyweight rankings updated Nov. 12 after UFC 295.)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 3 Magomed Anklaev vs. No. 9 Johnny Walker ends in no-contest, No. 12 Anthony Smith def. No. 13 Ryan Spann, No. 15 Volkan Oezdemir def. Bogdan Guskov
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Jiri Prochazka vs. No. 5 Alex Pereira (UFC 295, Nov. 11)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Rob Wilkinson (2), Azamat Murzakanov (1), Khalil Rountree (1), Thiago Santos (1)
(Light heavyweight rankings updated Nov. 12 after UFC 295.)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 9 Sean Strickland def. No. 1 Israel Adesanya, No. 5 Johnny Eblen def. No. 14 Fabian Edwards, Khamzat Chimaev def. No. 2 WW Kamaru Usman
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 11 Brendan Allen vs. Paul Craig (UFC Vegas 82, Nov. 18)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Paul Craig (3), Nassourdine Imavov (3), Ikram Aliskerov (1), Kelvin Gastelum (1), Jack Hermansson (1), Bo Nickal (1), Kamaru Usman (1)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): Khamzat Chimaev def. No. 2 Kamaru Usman (middleweight bout), No. 13 Jack Della Maddalena def. No. 15 (tied) Kevin Holland
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington (UFC 296, Dec. 16), No. 4 Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. No. 7 Stephen Thompson (UFC 296, Dec. 16), No. 5 (tied) Yaroslav Amosov vs. No. 15 Jason Jackson (Bellator 301, Nov. 17), No. 8 Sean Brady vs. Kelvin Gastelum (UFC Austin, Dec. 2), No. 10 Vicente Luque vs. No. 11 Ian Machado Garry (UFC 296, Dec. 16)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Sadibou Sy (4), Andrey Koreshkov (1), Neil Magny (1), Magomed Magomedkerimov (1), Michael Page (1)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 1 Islam Makhachev def. No. 1 FW Alexander Volkanovski, No. 6 Usman Nurmagomedov def. Brent Primus, No. 8 Mateusz Gamrot def. No. 7 Rafael Fiziev, Bobby Green def. No. 11 Grant Dawson
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 12 Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Clay Collard (PFL 10: 2023 Championships, Nov. 24), No. 13 (tied) A.J. McKee vs. Sidney Outlaw (Bellator 301, Nov. 24)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Benoit Saint-Denis (4), Grant Dawson (3), Renato Moicano (3), Drew Dober (2), Matt Frevola (2), Alexander Shabliy (2)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): Islam Makhachev def. No. 1 Alexander Volkanovski (lightweight bout), No. 2 Max Holloway def. No. 11 (tied) “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung 26), No. 11 (tied) Giga Chikadze def. Alex Caceres, No. 13 Bryce Mitchell def. No. 15 Dan Ige
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 8 Josh Emmett vs. No. 11 Giga Chikdaze (UFC 296, Dec. 16)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Edson Barboza (3), Lerone Murphy (2), Adam Borics (1), Jonathan Pearce (1), Chihiro Suzuki (1)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): N/A
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 5 Patchy Mix vs. No. 6 Sergio Pettis (Bellator 301, Nov. 17), No. 10 Rob Font vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (UFC Austin, Dec. 2), No. 13 Raufeon Stots vs. Danny Sabatello (Bellator 301, Nov. 17)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Pedro Munhoz (3), Magomed Magomedov (2), Ricky Simon (2), Juan Archuleta (1), Chris Gutierrez (1)
(Bantamweight rankings updated Nov. 18 after Bellator 301.)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 11 Manel Kape def. Felipe dos Santos, No. 13 Muhammad Mokaev def. No. 14 (tied) Tim Elliott
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 2 Alexandre Pantoja vs. No. 8 Brandon Royval (UFC 296, Dec. 16), No. 4 Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Rob Font vs. (bantamweight bout) (UFC Austin, Dec. 2)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Azamat Kerefov (3), Kairat Akhmetov (2), Azat Maksum (1), Jeff Molina (1)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): Nora Cornolle def. No. 15 Joselyne Edwards
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 6 Irene Aldana vs. No. 7 Karol Rosa (UFC 296, Dec. 16), No. 11 Miesha Tate vs. Julia Avila (UFC Austin, Dec. 2), No. 13 (tied) Lucie Pudilova vs. Ailin Perez (UFC Vegas 82, Nov. 18)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Tainara Lisboa (5), Serena DeJesus (1), Claire Guthrie (1), Olga Rubin (1), Taneisha Tennant (1), Darya Zheleznyakova (1)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 1 Alexa Grasso vs. No. 2 Valentina Shevchenko ends in a split draw, No. 3 Erin Blanchfield def. No. 4 Taila Santos, No. 5 Manon Fiorot def. No. 5 SW Rose Namajunas, No. 6 Liz Carmouche def. Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, No. 14 Viviane Araujo def. No. 10 Jennifer Maia
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 12 Juliana Velasquez vs. Paula Cristina (Bellator 301, Nov. 17), No. 13 (tied) Amanda Ribas vs. Luana Pinheiro (strawweight bout) (UFC Vegas 82, Nov. 18)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Casey O’Neill (6), Karine Silva (2)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): 5 WFLW Manon Fiorot def. No. 5 Rose Namajunas (flyweight bout), No. 10 Marina Rodriguez def. Michelle Waterson-Gomez, No. 15 (tied) Loopy Godinez def. Elise Reed, No. 15 (tied) Xiong Jing Nan def. Nat Jaroonsak (special rules striking match)
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 5 Jessica Andrade vs. No. 9 Mackenzie Dern (UFC 295, Nov. 11), No. 12 Angela Hill vs. Denise Gomes (UFC Sao Paulo, Nov. 4), No. 13 Tabatha Ricci vs. No. 14 Loopy Godinez (UFC 295, Nov. 11), Amanda Ribas vs. No. 15 Luana Pinheiro (UFC Vegas 82, Nov. 18)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Karolina Kowalkiewicz (3), Emily Ducote (2), Xiong Jingnan (2), Gillian Robertson (2), Michelle Waterson-Gomez (2)
A refresher on the ground rules:
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