The Lioness will make her return to the
bantamweight division in August. Per Dana White (@danawhite),
Amanda Nunes (@Amanda_Leoa)
will defend her 135-pound title against Julianna Peña (@VenezuelanVixen)
at UFC 265. pic.twitter.com/tWLmW2Exmt— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN)
April 15, 2021
Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. Callouts will get you far in the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the COVID-19
era. Per ESPN
on Thursday, Amanda
Nunes (21-4) has her next title defense lined up, for her first
appearance at 135 pounds since 2019. At bantamweight, she will
defend her strap against Julianna
Pena (10-4) at UFC
265 on Aug. 7. Pena called out Nunes after Pena’s previously
scheduled match with Holly Holm
fell through. On a one-fight win streak, Pena will get a crack at
gold.
Nunes has looked nothing short of unbeatable on her current,
historic 12-fight win streak. In her last time out, the
two-division champ tapped out Megan
Anderson in the first round with a triangle armbar to defend
her featherweight throne. In doing so, Nunes extended
or set a slew of records among all female UFC fighters
including the most wins, most championship wins, stoppages and
first-round finishes.
Pena has alternated wins and losses in her last five dating back to
2016, with wins over Cat Zingano,
Nicco
Montano and Sara McMann
bookending submission defeats to Valentina
Shevchenko and Germaine
de Randamie. Although not the first foe that Nunes has faced
from Season 18 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Pena won the season at
bantamweight. Pena posts a career 70 percent finish rate, stopping
the likes of Sara McMann,
Milana
Dudieva and Jessica
Rakoczy – the latter was to win TUF.
UFC 265 will take place on Aug. 7 at a currently undetermined
location, and there is only one match currently booked for the
card. The promotion has begun to schedule pay-per-view headliners
far in advance, as it was previously announced that Jan
Blachowicz and Glover
Teixeira would toe the line atop the September UFC 266
event.
