Amanda Nunes destroyed Ronda Rousey in less than a minute at UFC 207, and she expected nothing less than that.
Nunes successfully made her first title defense Friday night in the main event of the final UFC card of 2016, stopping Rousey in brutal fashion in the opening seconds of round one. Rousey had nothing going for her in the fight, as she got tagged early by the hard-hitting Brazilian and it all went downhill from there.
Despite the gambling odds saying this would be a close fight, Nunes believed that Rousey didn’t stand a chance against her striking.
“The whole time I knew it was going to be like that,” Nunes said in the post-fight conference. “And I’ve been training like that, like a lioness. And I knew, if I had the chance in the beginning of the fight, like she would give me the opportunity to, I knew I could finish her. I know the girls can’t take my punches. I know that, and it happened tonight.”
Nunes said that she knew it was over for Rousey from the first punch she connected on the former champ.
“Yeah, I saw the first punch and it built my confidence to keep it going,” Nunes said.
Although very grateful for everything Rousey has done for women’s MMA, and the opportunity to have shared the Octagon with her, Nunes is confident this is the end for Rousey, as she believes Rousey will never stand a chance against her punching power.
“Yeah, that’s it for her,” Nunes said. “For sure she’s going to retire. She can’t take it anymore. If she wants the rematch, I’m going to do the same thing because she can’t take my punches.”
Nunes, 28, even said she saw the fight going exactly the way it went when she asked UFC president Dana White for the opportunity months ago.
“From the moment I asked Dana for this fight,” Nunes said, “I knew it would go like that.”