UFC 245: Amanda Nunes retains Bantamweight title after being pushed to limit by Germaine de Randamie
In a rematch from UFC: Fight for the Troops 3, UFC's first female two-division champion Amanda Nunes went toe to toe against Germaine de Randamie in a fight for the UFC bantamweight championship bout at UFC 245 inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Nunes had won the first fight via TKO in the first round.
Unsurprisingly, Nunes successfully defended her Bantamweight title for an unprecedented fifth time in a row against de Randamie, beating her via unanimous decision after five grueling rounds in the first co-main event of the night.
The judges at cageside scored the fight 49-44, 49-46. 49-45, in favor of Nunes.
If there was any doubt in the minds of critics on whether Nunes could hold her own in a fight that goes the distance, they have been put to rest by the performance put up by the champ tonight. In the post-fight Octagon interview, Nunes said,
“I want to show something different. I want to show I have wrestling and jiu-jitsu as well. Tonight I proved it, I’m ready for five rounds. Let’s do this again.”
During the fight, de Randamie put Nunes in a spot of bother when she connected with a knee to the face and then piled on the misery with some nasty knees to the body. After managing to scrape through that period of pressure, Nunes managed to keep her counterpart quiet by using takedowns and laying some nasty ground and pound on de Randamie.