UFC women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes is the MMA fighters up for nomination at the 2021 ESPY Awards.
Nunes is up for nomination in two categories this year. The first category that she is nominated for is Best Athlete in Women’s Sports, and “The Lioness” is up against Naomi Osaka in tennis, Simone Biles in gymnastics, and Breanna Stewart of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm for the award. The 2021 ESPY Awards show takes place on July 10.
In addition to Nunes being nominated for the best athlete in women’s sports, she is also up for nomination in the category of best MMA fighter of the year. Going up against Nunes is UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, UFC women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas, and former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. It’s obviously a very competitive field this year and any of the four fighters could win it. But the fact that Nunes was also nominated for a second award means she will have two chances to win an ESPY award while the other three MMA fighters will only get their one shot in this category.
Amanda Nunes (21-4) defeated Megan Anderson via first-round submission at UFC 259 in another successful UFC women’s featherweight title defense. The champ will now return down to the UFC women’s bantamweight division and defend her belt there against Julianna Pena at UFC 265 this summer in Houston, Texas. Nunes is currently riding a 12-fight win streak and she hasn’t lost dating back to a TKO defeat to Cat Zingano in September 2014. Since then, Nunes has been absolutely unbeatable in the Octagon and has been absolutely destroying everyone in her path as she builds on her legacy as the women’s MMA GOAT.