Amanda Nunes suffered a shocking loss against Julianna Pena last year at UFC 269 as a result of which he also lost he UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship. Claressa Shields recently claimed that the outcome was due to ‘The Lioness’ not being fully recovered from COVID-19 which she contracted earlier in the year.
Claressa Shields makes bold claims
At UFC 269, Amanda Nunes was set to defend her women’s bantamweight title against one of the few contenders she had not yet already defeated. Julianna Pena had headed into the fight being a massive underdog. However, Pena would shock the world. After definitively losing the first round, ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ entered round two eyeing for vengeance. She did what very few have ever been able to do. She managed to go toe-to-toe with Nunes and exahcnaged brutal strikes. This approach did wonders as Nunes was caught off guard and she began to fade under the pressure.
Pena did not relent and, after bringing the fight to the mat, she was able to lock in a modified rear-naked choke that saw the former champ tap. With that, Pena became one of the biggest underdog champions of all time.
However, in a recent interview with Fight Hype, world champion boxer and 1-1 MMA fighter Claressa Shields stated that she believes Nunes’ loss was due to her suffering the effects of long COVID-19:
“I think Amanda hadn’t recovered from Covid yet. To be honest. I think that, yes, her test came back negative but when you catch Covid it can do a lot to your respiratory system and stuff like that. I think that she was still kinda battling with that, and that’s why I think she’s confident in the rematch. Amanda won the first round. You know, I just think that she kinda, you know, gassed out. Because she had been sick and all the other stuff. But I think Amanda Nunes is gonna come back and win her title back. But congrats to, what’s her name, Julianna.”
