"Shutting someone out is the absolute most dominant thing you can do" - Chael Sonnen on why Amanda Nunes preferred a dominant decision victory against Julianna Pena
Chael Sonnen knows a thing or two about UFC title fights. The now-retired Sonnen competed in two middleweight championship fights against Anderson Silva and one light heavyweight championship fight against Jon Jones, losing all three.
Sonnen, who competed in 49 MMA matches during his career, recently took to his YouTube show, Beyond the Fight, to reflect on UFC 277's main event between Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena, stating:
"Now, there is nothing more dominant in fighting than shutting somebody out, nothing. One judge gave Amanda a 10-8 round, gave her every round, but one of them was a 10-8. Another judge, Douglas Crosby, gave two 10-8 rounds to Amanda. That is the most dominant thing that you can possibly do."
: ufc.ac/3JiSRWH
#UFC277 Official Scorecard: Julianna Peña vs Amanda Nunes (@Amanda_Leoa)
All Scorecards from Dallas➡️: ufc.ac/3JiSRWH https://t.co/VeritpruEs
To everybody watching the fight — including the judges — it was clear that Nunes was dominant throughout. Sonnen felt that she put forth the most dominant performance possible, continuing:
"Shutting somebody out is the absolute most dominant thing you can do, so when Amanda says, 'I didn't want to finish her,' this is what Amanda's talking about. 'I did not want a fluke. I did not want to catch her the way she caught me. I didn't want to put her down, put her out and have this fight stopped. I wanted her to know for the duration of the match, there is no situation or scenario that you can beat me so that you never want to fight me again.' That is the message that Amanda was giving to Megan Olivi after the fight."
Watch Chael Sonnen's full comments on Beyond the Fight below:
Is Chael Sonnen right that Julianna Pena shouldn't want to fight Amanda Nunes again?
Chael Sonnen seemed to support Amanda Nunes' claim that she wasn't looking for a finish. He also insinuated that Pena shouldn't be looking to fight Nunes again.
Fans seem to agree that a trilogy would be unnecessary, with one fan even claiming that the fight should have been 50-40:
50-40 Nunes, How did Pena not go unconscious wtf https://t.co/Ma1oXClOXJ
Former UFC fighter Brendan Schaub didn't go as far, stating that he would have scored the fight 50-42 in favor of Nunes. He also supported the idea that Pena should not be given a rematch.
Current UFC fighter Belal Muhummad disagreed with Nunes and Chael Sonnen regarding their claims that Nunes chose not to finish Pena. He felt that Nunes couldn't finish her opponent and that there were moments where the challenger could have secured a stoppage victory.
That claim is hard to agree with, as Nunes was dominant from start to finish. The champion has already received call-outs for title fights, but there aren't many fights (minus a cross-promotion bout with Kayla Harrison) that make sense. While the trilogy shouldn't be off the table, Pena didn't make the fight close enough to make it a likelihood.