Two-weight world champion Amanda Nunes made her sixth bantamweight title defence against Irene Aldana, then announced she would retire aged 35 after tying compatriot and impending Hall of Famer Anderson Silva’s record for championship wins (11). Prior, Charles Oliveira’s long-awaited return was electrifying – snapping Beneil Dariush’s eight-fight win streak in the co-main.
Nunes proclaims double champion forever, departs on top
50-44, 50-44, 50-43: Nunes bt. Aldana via UD, announces retirement post-fight
- “Double champion forever! If you look around, I just tied Anderson Silva defending the belt, tonight is the perfect time to retire and live happy forever,” Nunes tells Daniel Cormier in Octagon interview as she cites mum’s wishes – much like Khabib Nurmagomedov in Oct. 2020 – and family as key reasons why she’s making the decision now at age 35
- Nunes notches new career-best 142 significant strikes over 25 minutes at 53% connect percentage, overtakes Olympic silver medallist Sara McMann for most takedowns in UFC bantamweight history (32) against Aldana
- “They [Nunes’ title challengers] get in there and it’s almost as if they’re surviving against her. What are we gonna do when she’s gone?” Cormier says during world title fight on commentary as UFC president Dana White hints afterwards that 145lb division will depart with its champion
If you read through the tea leaves during fight week, it felt inevitable that tonight would be Amanda Nunes’ retirement fight, and she wanted to go out with a bang.
From refusing to leave with Julianna Pena as the champion, to historical articles on the very subject resurfacing, and more besides, the question of what’s next is immediately a pressing one given she reigned over two divisions for so long.
The only blemish was her lacking a finish, adding an exclamation mark to another commanding showing that quickly resembled a sparring session.
Two former foes in long-reigning flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko and one-time bantamweight titlist Julianna Pena were among those in attendance, while another – Raquel Pennington – tweeted thoughts as the back-up option here.
Two-weight world champion Henry Cejudo was among those live-tweeting and said it best, Irene Aldana [5] appeared starstruck at the size of the task staring back at her over a 25-minute beatdown with damage quickly accruing everywhere.
Nunes started with kicks, to the legs and body, before briefly getting a high crotch takedown while asserting herself as the aggressor with Aldana reacting plenty but not throwing enough off the back foot.
Nunes landed a few one-two combos, before Aldana caught her coming in with a right-hand counter to punish an understandably overzealous champion whose early start suggested it’d be a long night for her Mexican challenger.
For better and certainly worse, Julianna Pena wasn’t fazed in the same moment on two separate occasions in previous years. After all, she was the original opponent for a trilogy bout no-one really asked for.
Into the second they went, Nunes still mixing her attacks – flirting with offensive wrestling while jabbing at range and controlling the tempo with leg kicks too.
The damage continued to mount for Aldana, who kept a high guard and tried staying defensively responsible but wasn’t landing enough or giving the champ different looks in their stand-up exchange to keep her guessing.
Aldana overextending gave Nunes an opportunity to sweep her down late in R2, and she did the same midway through the third as a graphic popped up on screen: the champion passing Olympic silver medallist Sara McMann for most takedowns (26).
It was almost too easy for Nunes to keep Aldana wherever she wanted at this stage, and that much came even clearer after a trip saw Amanda threaten two submissions, one on her neck and fleetingly an armbar too.
Nunes continued to open up with vicious strikes snapping the challenger’s head back as they ventured into the championship rounds – Aldana giving her far too much respect – though she stuffed consecutive takedowns.
She succeeded at the third attempt with a more forceful entry and the onslaught kept coming, 104-29 the unofficial significant strike count after 18 minutes as you could see the Brazilian’s connect percentage increasing in real-time.
That didn’t stop Amanda’s wife Nina warning her against getting greedy and avoiding Aldana’s left hand before the final round, which still carried power late on.
Nunes took Aldana down rather easily to start the fifth and spent the next few minutes unloading near the fence, drowning a challenger who never truly looked close to beating her. She’s cleaned out the division, and fittingly finished on top.
Rest of main card, featuring Do Bronx and Dynamite Dan
R1, 4:23 – Charles Oliveira [1] bt. Beneil Dariush [4] via R1 KO
Charles Oliveira’s rousing reception from Vancouver’s Rogers Arena might’ve made you believe he was favoured to win as soundly as he did, but being a pick’em fight made this such compelling viewing.
Oliveira began this lightweight title eliminator the same way he finished it, a head kick rocking Dariush backwards against the fence.
Beneil logged more than half-a-round’s worth of control time (2:44) as he indirectly benefited from Do Bronx‘s failed takedown, reversing position and getting on top.
The crowd were excited as they thought a heel hook submission was in play for the former champion, an honourary Canadian for the week, as he stung the 34-year-old with an upkick and looked comfortable fighting off his back on the canvas.
Dariush logged significant ground strikes, until he didn’t.
They scrambled back to their feet, Oliveira hurt him badly after connecting on another head kick and left hand, before raining down ground-and-pound strikes as referee Jason Herzog waved off the contest – over in a flash, an emphatic win.
The reigning champion at 155lbs, Islam Makhachev, had this to say on Twitter afterwards. It looks like he’ll have to prove it once more after this display:
It could’ve been a disaster before he even entered the cage, but thankfully Canadian welterweight Mike Malott and fans around him were unhurt during the walkout as he scored a R2 submission win (guillotine choke) against Adam Fugitt.
The Contender Series alum improved to 3-0 since graduating from the show in late 2021 and by earning another finish, secured a 5-0 sweep for Canadian fighters on home soil. This reaction said it all:
After earning one of three performance checks ($50,000), the 31-year-old (10-1-1) will hope to continue this surging form after racking up consecutive bonuses – having begun as he meant to go on, with a pair of takedowns and 1:26 worth of control time.
After an iffy first round was punctuated by what appeared to be a late knockdown, #13 ranked featherweight Dan Ige again defended his top-15 ranking against fan favourite Nate Landwehr but lamented his inability to find another KO win post-fight.
Following a three-fight losing streak against ranked opposition, Ige has built himself back into some form by stopping victorious runs for fringe contenders so far this year.
Damon Jackson (R2, KO in January) and now Landwehr, whose fan-friendly aggressive style wasn’t fruitful against someone defensively savvy enough to manage distance and better defend his wild forward forays with clever counterpunching.
Ige wasn’t credited with a knockdown in R1 on the official stats page, but there was no doubting his second in R2 as he took over and the accuracy didn’t tell lies.
R1: 14 of 45 (31%)
R2: 41 of 78 (52%)
R3: 33 of 61 (54%)
Pre-fight he spoke of a desire to get back climbing the ladder of contenders at 145lbs, and while he’ll probably need another win or two before focusing attentions on fighting up the rankings, this is another encouraging sign – finish or not.
Marc-Andre Barriault and Eryk Anders kicked off the main card with what proved the Fight of the Night at middleweight, as Quebec’s own won on home soil in the first Canada show since 2019 – their fighters had a 100% win rate (5/5) as a nation.
They combined for 190 total strikes over 15 minutes, 178 deemed significant in a fun back-and-forth scrap which swung one way, then the next without warning.
Barriault elicited the crowd’s biggest response, understandably so, after a flash knockdown early in R1 – but Anders recovered his bearings quickly and gamely fired back with heat of his own through combos, sneaky elbows and knees.
Anders’ toughness and renewed focus was praised, but the 36-year-old failed to evade some point-scoring strikes hindering his chances of an upset win – as far as the fans were concerned – as their compatriot piled on punch output.
Couple that with Anders’ inability to secure takedowns (1-of-11, 3:18 control time), you can quickly see how he was second best in a competitive clash of fine margins.
Early prelim, prelim results
Middleweight: Nassourdine Imavov vs. Chris Curtis ended in a no contest (R2, 3:04) after an accidental clash of heads rendered Curtis unable to continue
Women’s flyweight: Jasmine Jasudavicius bt. Miranda Maverick via UD (29-28 x 3)
Bantamweight: Aiemann Zahabi bt. Aori Qileng via R1 KO (left hook to ground strikes)
Featherweight: Kyle Nelson bt. Blake Bilder via UD (30-27 x 2, 29-28)
Flyweight: Stephen Erceg bt. David Dvorak via UD (29-28 x 2, 30-27)
Women’s strawweight: Diana Belbita bt. Maria Oliveira via UD (30-27 x 2, 29-28)
Picture source: Getty Images, stats via UFC broadcast unless stated
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