‘The Lioness’ is gearing up for a return that could breathe some much needed excitement into the women’s bantamweight division.
After announcing her retirement in 2023, Amanda Nunes seemingly confirmed her comeback at the recent UFC 316 press conference after she was shown on screen.
The 135-pound title is set to be defended in the co-main event on June 7 in Newark where her former opponent and the current titleholder Julianna Pena takes on Kayla Harrison, another fighter that Nunes has history with.
Nunes was announced for this year’s Hall of Fame several days later at UFC 314 in Miami with the Brazilian’s legacy already being assured in the sport.
Despite the excitement around the former champ-champ making a return after she is immortalized in the Hall of Fame, a former UFC star doesn’t understand the hype.
Chael Sonnen can’t understand why fans care about Amanda Nunes returning
In the years leading up to Amanda Nunes’ retirement, there was a sense that her fights weren’t always the most interesting in the eyes of the fans.
That’s partly due to how great she was with the champion being so far ahead of her competition that she didn’t have an equal after beating the likes of Valentina Shevchenko and Cris Cyborg.
Chael Sonnen referenced this in a recent YouTube video that he made about Nunes and Kayla Harrison where he claimed that no one would click on the video after seeing the two women in the thumbnail.
Sonnen, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year for his first fight with Anderson Silva, stated that he doesn’t understand why fans are excited for the former champion to return when they didn’t care about her whilst she was still active.
A lot of fans would point to the lack of competition that she had at points in her career and how Harrison beating Julianna Pena at UFC 316 would allow the former Olympian to finally pose an interesting threat to ‘The Lioness’ as a new and dominant force that has arrived since Nunes has been gone.
Sonnen, however, believes that people are merely pretending to be excited for what would be one of the most memorable moments of the year as one of the all-time greats makes the walk once again.
“This is very polite. It’s very polite to pretend that you want Amanda Nunes to come back, it’s very polite but I’m just not really sure why you’re doing it. You didn’t get excited when she was here the first time. You didn’t come out, you didn’t buy a T-shirt, you wouldn’t watch the show because, you wouldn’t buy the pay-per-view because and now you’re pretending that you want her to come back.”
Sonnen did go on to say that this is nothing to do with Nunes herself, he just doesn’t understand why fans have changed their viewpoint on watching her compete.
“She’s the greatest of all time. I’ve also met her and she turns out she’s like a really, really nice human being in addition to that. It’s not a commentary on that. You don’t want to see her fight and you never did so I struggle with this newfound curiosity of will she come back.”
Chael Sonnen believes that Amanda Nunes hasn’t improved since she met Kayla Harrison
Not only does Kayla Harrison’s skillset and accomplishments make her an interesting opponent for a returning Amanda Nunes, there’s history between them.
Nunes left American Top Team several years ago with Harrison’s arrival at the gym being one of the reasons that she looked to create her own smaller team after feeling like she working too close to her potential rivals.
Chael Sonnen believes that the 36-year-old suffered from a drop in form after she departed ATT, claiming that from the day Nunes first introduced herself to Harrison, their ability has gone in completely different directions.
“From that day until right now, Amanda is not one teeny tiny millimetre better than she was that day. However good she was the day she reached out and said, ‘Hi I’m Amanda,’ and that person said, ‘Hi my name is Kayla,’ Amanda is not one technique, one stroke, one move, one combination, one bit better and that isn’t true for Kayla.”
