Former UFC bantamweight women’s champion Amanda Nunes has revealed that she was advised by a doctor not to fight at UFC 269.
In December the reigning featherweight queen saw her 12 fight winning streak come to an end after Juliana Pena submitted her in the second round of their fight.
Speaking in a recent media press conference, Nunes admitted that she was nowhere near ready enough to face Peña’s challenge and that she was foolish to ignore the medical advice she was given:
“I thought it wouldn’t look good if I let that fight fall through one more time,” she said. “So I put what I was dealing with aside, but I didn’t have a very good camp, that was the honest thing.
“I tried putting into my head that I was ready, I was 100 percent, but I was lying to myself. That is exactly what I was doing. But as a fighter, as a warrior, I wanna fight. I want to do that. I’m gonna fight whatever, even if I have an injury. But at this level, you cannot do those stupid moves. So, I paid for it.
“I was supposed to let the fight fall through, get 100% again, and fight Julianna,” Nunes continued. “And I know Julianna is a very tough opponent. I know that [defeat] could have a chance at happening cause my timing was very off. I wasn’t even able to do sparring in my camp.” Nunes also stated that her doctor demanded that she withdraw from the blockbuster pay-per-view due to the severity of her physical issues. Looking back now, the 33-year-old concedes she was “dumb” to ignore this medical advice and that she paid the price as a result.
“Unfortunately, sometimes we do dumb things, and especially at the level I’m at, we’re not supposed to do those things.
“Sometimes I say, ‘Man, I really should’ve listened to my doctor.’ He told me, ‘Let me handle it with the UFC, I’ll tell them exactly what you’re going through right now, and you have to have time to rest and recover. If you don’t, you’re not gonna perform as well.’ I was like, fighting with my doctor. I said, ‘You’re not gonna do that, you don’t have my permission to do that. I’m gonna fight.’
“So, I went back to his office [after the fight] and he looked at me like, ‘I told you.’ So now, after watching the fight as well, I had a hard time for a little bit watching the fight because I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know what happened.’ Like, I kept lying to myself after the fight.”
