UFC legend Amanda Nunes officially ended her MMA career after coming out on top of UFC 289's main event, effectively vacating her Bantamweight and Featherweight titles in the octagon. It's a storybook ending for the dominant combat fighter, and the question now is what her next step will be after retiring. Many former big names from the UFC have had crossover and post-MMA success in the WWE, but could Nunes be the next to join up with marquee athletes like Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar? That remains to be seen, but the fighter did share her thoughts and feelings about potentially c making that kind of transition.
Ahead of her final match in the UFC, which was a victory by unanimous decision against Irene Aldana, Amanda Nunes spoke to the New York Post about a potential future in the WWE. Nunes noted that she was interested in the pro wrestling organization, but her possibly inclusion would depend on one key element. In her words:
It depends on the contract, you know? If the contract is amazing, why not? What I wanted to do in MMA, I did already — even more than I thought in my head when I went through my whole career. I became a double champion. I wanted only one — I had two … I’m so happy, and whatever comes after I’m done with UFC, we’ll see.
As previously mentioned, the WWE has enlisted several former MMA fighters into its ranks, going back to early UFC stats like Tank Abbott and Ken Shamrock. Though it's tough to say if any have truly equaled Amanda Nunes' caliber. She's universally seen as one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, and boasted some impressive title runs while setting records during her time in the UFC.
In short, it may require quite a bit of money to retain her talents, especially with Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler factored into the mix. Just for her final fight in UFC alone, Nunes walked away with over half a million for the fight purse (via Sports Manor).
Rousey and Baszler are the current women's tag-team champions of the WWE, and they both just so happen to have suffered high-profiile losses in the UFC to Amanda Nunes. Additionally, when Nunes and Rousey fought in the UFC, the pay-per-view earned 1.1 million buys (via MMAFighting.com). If Nunes is willing to enter contract negotiations with the WWE, I'd imagine her camp will be quick to point that out.
At that point, it becomes a question of whether the spectacle of seeing Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes in a WWE ring is worth whatever it takes to make it happen. It's no secret there are critics of Rousey's in-ring work, even though she's been working fairly consistently in that capacity since 2017. Nunes is obviously a trained fighter in several disciplines, but likely green when it comes to the WWE's style of performative wrestling. So any potential faceoffs would need to be worth both the money and the effort put into Nunes' revised training agendas.
It's hard to say how that would all play out, especially when it comes to unproven talent in the WWE. It wasn't that long ago when Logan Paul stunned the wrestling world by showing he's a talented in-ring worker, despite having little experience. If Amanda Nunes could end up being the same sort of special talent, then whatever contract she'd be offered would be worth the cost. Speaking of which, Jake Paul and Nunes had a brief feud themselves, so that's fuel for another potential major feud that the WWE's creatives could set up.
There are lot of upcoming WWE events on the horizon, so will Amanda Nunes start showing up for any of them? Here's hoping, and hey, maybe she's just the person the organization needs to finally end Roman Reigns' dominant streak!
