"Get out of here with that, you couldn't finish her" - Belal Muhammad dismisses Amanda Nunes' "cocky and arrogant" claims
Belal Muhammad has shunned claims from Amanda Nunes that she intentionally prolonged her UFC 277 fight with Julianna Peña to the final bell to prove a point.
In a new Instagram post captioned "Recap", Muhammad said that there were moments when Nunes was close to defeat, rejecting the Brazilian's claims of finishing her. He said:
"There were moments in the fight where Julianna could have won that fight. Amanda [Nunes] I felt like is getting too cocky, getting too arrogant saying 'I could have finished her in the first round if I wanted to, but I wanted to go five rounds so I could show her who's better', blah, blah, blah. Get out of here with that. You couldn't finish her. She knows that Julianna punches hard, her eye was very swollen, she left on crutches while leaving. So, she was definitely in a fight." [sic]
Amanda Nunes looked more comfortable this time around, landing heavy blows in the opening rounds that sent her opponent to the ground on several occasions. The fight went the distance, with the judges scoring it 50-45, 50-44 and 50-43 in favor of the Brazilian.
With a dominant win, Nunes reclaimed the bantamweight title after losing it to Pena back in December in one of the biggest upsets in the sport. The duo are now 1-1 with a potential trilogy fight in store in the near future.
Catch Amanda Nunes' talk about her fight against Pena below:
Julianna Pena fired up for trilogy fight with Amanda Nunes after UFC 277 loss
'The Venezuelan Vixen' was clearly second best throughout the fight, despite having her moments on occasion. During the fight, Pena suffered two gnarly cuts to her forehead but continued to put up a battle till the end of the five rounds.
Hours after the fight, Pena took to Instagram to provide an update, while also teasing the possibility of a third fight with Amanda Nunes saying:
"Tougher than a two dollar steak. Thanks for the love everyone! Just a cat scratch that required a few stitches, no chunks missing, no surgery necessary. Love you all! We’re 1-1 now #peopleschamp #trilogy #penavsnunes3 #lfg Best compliment of the day from my boy @mikemav22"
Pena will hope to recover from the loss as she moves to a 6-3 record in the UFC. Despite a gritty effort, she will aim to shrug off the loss in Texas and return to the octagon for another possible title shot as soon as possible.