Dana White shocked to hear Amanda Nunes contemplating retirement but ‘she’s got plenty of money’ to do it

When UFC president Dana White hears about an athlete contemplating retirement, he usually tells them it’s probably a good idea to walk away.

That’s not the case with two-division champion Amanda Nunes.

Following her 11th straight win, eighth consecutive title victory and first defense of her featherweight championship, Nunes said recently that there wasn’t much left for her to accomplish before calling it a career.

“I’ve achieved everything I wanted,” Nunes said recently. “I’m well, I can go on with my life, maybe a [take] new step, maybe find new talents, help some girls there…maybe be a coach, too.”

Typically, White might offer congratulations but he clearly doesn’t believe Nunes should be anywhere closed to finished with her legendary career.

“I will kill her,” White said with a smile when hearing that Nunes was contemplating retirement while appearing on the Schmozone Podcast. “I literally just told Sean [Shelby] and Mick [Maynard] in the last meeting, let’s get this [featherweight] division built for her. Let’s build this division for her and let’s start figuring this out. Now she’s talking about retiring?

“You know what’s awesome about that when you think about it — her retiring isn’t awesome, that actually drives me nuts. You know how I always say if you’re talking about retirement, you probably should … unless you’re where she’s at. It’s like what I said about [Daniel] Cormier when he was talking about retiring a couple of years ago.”

If Nunes is seriously considering retirement, White is proud to say she’s earned the kind of money to where she would never have to work again.

He just believes Nunes has a lot of road left in front of her that could still be traveled before she actually hangs up her gloves for good.

“In this time when I’ve got guys crying about money, one of our female fighters who could go on and keep doing this for a long time is saying maybe I retire now,” White said. “She’s got plenty of money and she can do it.

“Nobody ever brings that sh*t up that the women are treated just like the men here. Even tennis, which is a massive sport that’s been around forever, has huge TV deals, the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, all these things and the women still don’t make what the men do. Amanda Nunes is in a position where she can retire.”

In her last fight, Nunes took home an event-high $450,000 for her title defense against Felicia Spencer at UFC 250.

Money aside, Nunes has brought up retirement previously but ultimately walked back her comments. It’s possible she’s more serious this time while awaiting the birth of her first child later this year with her wife, fellow UFC fighter Nina Ansaroff.

Nunes already said she was planning to take off the rest of 2020 to spend with her new family so perhaps the time off will allow her to make a decision whether to fight again or ride off into the sunset as the UFC’s first and only two division women’s champion.