Amanda Nunes Announces Retirement at UFC 289 After Defending Title vs. Irene Aldana

Amanda Nunes exits the UFC as a champion.

The 35-year-old successfully defended her bantamweight championship with her unanimous decision victory over Irene Aldana at UFC 289 on Saturday night, and she promptly announced her retirement from fighting following the bout.

Nunes has been as close to an unstoppable force as there has been in mixed martial arts over the past nine years. She’s won 14 of her last 15 bouts, including Saturday, and avenged her lone loss during that span when she beat Julianna Peña to regain the bantamweight title at UFC 277.

Despite her Hall-of-Fame resume and being arguably the best women’s fighter in UFC history, Nunes has had her hunger to remain great called into question recently. UFC president Dana White did it publicly going into her rematch with Peña.

“Amanda is a multi-millionaire who is now at a completely different financial status,” White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto in June 2022 (h/t Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie). She has a baby now. Her life – she is not that hungry savage she was when she started to take this run at becoming a world champion. A lot of that factors in.”

Nunes is one of three fighters in UFC history to hold two titles simultaneously. Conor McGregor (featherweight and lightweight) and Daniel Cormier (light heavyweight and heavyweight) are the others.

The Brazilian superstar entered Saturday as the bantamweight and featherweight champion, having held the latter title since December 2018.

Aldana was given her first UFC title fight fairly late in the build for this show. It was originally going to be headlined by a third bout between Nunes and Peña, but Peña suffered broken ribs during training.

White named Aldana as the replacement for the main event on May 2. She entered this bout with a pedestrian 7-4 record in 11 UFC fights, but won four of her previous five fights with three via knockout or TKO during that span.

Nunes was a huge step up in competition for Aldana, and the champion made it show with the eight successful title defense of her legendary career.