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Amanda Nunes (23-5) earned a unanimous choice victory over Irene Aldana (14-7) to retain her bantamweight championship in the primary occasion of UFC 289 from Rogers Area in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. After the victory, she minimize her gloves off and retired from MMA as one of many all-time greats.
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Nunes gave Aldana loads of respect early within the combat, maintaining her distance, however discovering her vary. Nunes earned a takedown however instantly hopped again to her toes, unwilling to have interaction on the bottom. Aldana was hesitant to change, maintaining her palms tight and overreacting to each feint. With a couple of minute remaining within the first spherical, Aldana caught Nunes with a pleasant counter proper that despatched the champ stumbling.
Within the second, Nunes appeared downstairs, with large leg kicks that began to point out harm on the challenger’s lead leg. Aldana obtained dropped halfway via the spherical with a simple takedown, however Nunes refused to do something on the bottom. Aldana started to let her palms go late, and Nunes responded with a combo and a nasty clinch and knee to the top. Nunes continued to pour it on late, incomes a 3rd takedown with 15 seconds remaining within the second.
The third noticed Nunes bully Aldana to the bottom 3 times, sustaining prime management for many of the spherical. With lower than a minute remaining within the spherical, Aldana appeared exhausted and began letting her palms go. Nunes caught Aldana with one other large mixture adopted by a clinch and knee.
Aldana opened the championship rounds with rather more exercise, however nearly instantly ate a huge elbow from Nunes. The champ continued to select aside Aldana with shot after shot, mixing up takedown makes an attempt with elbows, entrance kicks, and overhand photographs.
The fifth was a lot of the identical for Nunes, who earned a takedown and maintained prime place principally all the spherical.
Nunes defended the bantamweight crown for the primary time since winning the belt back at UFC 277 against Julianna Peña. Nunes got here into Saturday evening’s primary occasion having misplaced simply twice since 2014. She places a bow on her profession, defeating each notable girls’s fighter within the UFC’s historical past, with wins over Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm, Cris Cyborg, Valentina Shevchenko, and Miesha Tate.
Aldana stepped as much as combat Nunes when the previous champion, Peña, withdrew in Could attributable to a rib damage. Aldana received her final two bouts through knockout heading into her title tilt, final falling in 2020 in a call loss to Holly Holm.
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