'WTF happened': Upset shocks the world
Victory is sweet for Amanda Nunes, the UFC’s first two-division champion.Source:AP
Amanda Nunes has pencilled her name into UFC folklore with one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, knocking out Cris “Cyborg” Justino in just 51 seconds.
Cyborg had been the dominant featherweight in women’s MMA and held the UFC featherweight title for the past two years, defending it three times.
But the last time the 33-year-old Brazilian lost was in 2005 — in her first professional fight.
She has since built a 20-1-0 record with 18 knockouts.
That was shattered today.
Fellow Brazillian Amanda Nunes, the UFC bantamweight champion, moved up 10 pounds to challenge the women considered the world’s greatest female fighter.
The pair flew out of the blocks with Nunes stunning the champion and buckling her knees in the opening seconds.
It was one way traffic from there as Nunes knocked Justino down twice, and she ended the fight spectacularly with an overhand right to the ear, putting Justino facedown on the canvas 51 seconds after the opening bell.
With the win, she became the third fighter in UFC history to hold two title belts simultaneously, joining Conor McGregor and Daniel Cormier.
When asked about if this was how she expected the fight to go down as it did, Nunes got a big reaction from the crowd.
“Yeah, for sure,” she said. “When I signed the contract, I said ‘this is going down and I’m going to be the first female two-time champion in the UFC’. Guys, it happened, I told you.
“I am the first female two-champ in the UFC. I am the greatest. Dana, now I have to be in the Hall of Fame.”
Nunes (17-4) was thought to be an undersized underdog, but she seized her second title belt by overwhelming her fellow Brazilian in the penultimate bout of the show headlined by former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ return against Alexander Gustafsson for the 205-pound title.
Cyborg is known as the most feared women in the history of the sport and was expected to make light work of Nunes.
“That was insane,” UFC commentator Joe Rogan said.
“Out of all the potential outcomes, first round KO by Amanda Nunes like that, all the things we’ve said in the past, that Amanda Nunes has ridiculous knock out power, man did you see it tonight. Wow.”
Nunes has made a career of knocking out legends, having knocked out Ronda Rousey in less than a minute two years ago.
Rogan has no doubt where Nunes stands in the history of the UFC.
“She’s the best ever,” he said. “The fact that she just knocked out Cyborg, she’s number one. I mean that is just amazing, to knock out Ronda Rousey and Cris Cyborg in the first round, two of the biggest names in the history of the sport, she’s incredible.”
Nunes has been a giant killer throughout her career and effectively ended the careers of Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate.
Dana White was unequivicol in his praise of Nunes.
“She’s the best ever — how can you deny it?” he said in the post-fight press conference.
“That’s what this fight was for. this fight was to find out but if you look at her resume and who she’s beat, she’s the best ever. Nobody can dispute that — you can try and say some stupid s*** but she’s the best ever.”
Social media reacted quickly to the stunning result with some of the UFC’s biggest names heaping praise on the newest dual champion.
Just six days after the UFC moved the entire show from Las Vegas to the famous Forum south of downtown Los Angeles, a capacity crowd watched another groundbreaking achievement by Nunes, the ferocious brawler who calls herself “The Lioness”.
Nunes’ punching power is often too much for her male sparring partners, and she carved up the formidable Justino with astonishing ease despite a size disadvantage.
Justino had won 20 consecutive fights since her MMA debut in 2005, and she had dominated since the inception of the UFC’s 145-pound division, which was created largely as a showcase for her talent.
The UFC made the extraordinary decision to move its show 280 miles to California to keep Jones on the card.
The former champion recently tested positive for low levels of a banned steroid, but California regulatory officials didn’t consider the result serious enough to keep the long-troubled star out of the octagon, while Nevada’s commission did.
Australian featherweight prospect Alexander Volkanovski (19-1) won his 16th straight bout in the PPV opener, stopping veteran Chad Mendes with right hands in the second round of a back-and-forth bout.
Michael Chiesa also won his welterweight debut with a second-round submission of former champ Carlos Condit, who lost his fifth straight fight.
Former UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn tapped out for the first time in his MMA career, losing to Brazilian jiu-jitsu whiz Ryan Hall on a heel hook in the first round.
Penn (16-13-2), an MMA pioneer who turned 40 this month, is 0-6-1 in his last seven fights since 2010.
— with AP
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