It was bad that nunes couldn't handle a slip and jab.
And then like other fights where she has gotten outclassed on the feet she tries taking them to the ground, but pena has a ground game as well.
Pena is that you? Pena never won anything else of any significance other than a fluky win over a COVID-affected Nunes with bad lungs. It is the holistic picture that counts. Not one single data point.
You want proof? Go look at interviews Pena was doing just before the first fight where she had a insider/mole in ATT telling her Nunes was not even coming to train meaning, Nunes was going to duck in the first fight according to Pena.
Anyone who looks at the difference between round 1 and round 2 can tell Nunes completely checked out in round 2 taking deep breaths and did not want to be there after winning first round. She simply went for broke and started brawling out of desperation. Nunes looked her typical self in the 2nd fight. Nunes domination in the 2nd fight showed, she has proven to be on a different level when she is 100%.
There is nothing before or after to substantiate it was not a fluke other than this blip. She will always be a one-hit wonder while Nunes will always be the GOAT if one looks at the totality of the body of work by both. Nunes beat every single champion and other than this fluky win, what does Pena have?
When Nunes came in proper shape and did not gas out (Nunes won the round 1 in the first fight and gassed out due to poor preparation and COVID), it was not even a competitive fight. It was a brutal beatdown!
There was
total domination Nunes had on Pena in the second fight where Nunes knocked her down a record 5 times in 2 rounds? Pena got so desperate that she drove her head into Nunes' right eye and head butted her in round 3 just to slow her demolition down. Still, Nunes still destroyed Pena for another 2 rounds mauling to the point the commentators were begging the fight to be stopped.
If the 2nd fight had been remotely competitive, by Pena's own admissions she wanted to show it was not a fluke and it was a total one sided domination. The fact that she could not even put up a decent fight, clearly proved the first fight was a fluke. Yeah, Nunes could not finish her because Pena has the ability to take insurmountable amount of punishment and still not give up. I giver her that.
Reality is, one judge gave a n unprecedented 50-43 and the other judge gave a 50-44. Nunes had multiple 10-8 rounds on the judges cards. You would have an argument, if Nunes had lost a round 10-9 even if she won overall, but Nunes destroyed Pena in every single round by the numbers. If you know anything about scoring, that is considered a brutal beatdown and also the fight stats say the same thing.
Classic windmill punches in action and the punishment. This happened 5 times in round 1 and round 2 (a record)
Headbutting in action in round 3 where Pena successfully broke Nunes' orbital bone and closed her right eye, but the brutal beatdown continued till the end of the fight. As manipulative as Pena is, post fight she tried to make it sound like she broke Nunes' orbital bone and closed her eye with punches when that was patently false.
