Two-division UFC champion Amanda Nunes will defend her women's bantamweight title against Germaine de Randamie this weekend, and on Monday she said she intends to defend at featherweight in her next fight after that.
Nunes (18-4) is one of just four fighters to reign in two UFC divisions simultaneously, and none has defended both titles. Conor McGregor did not defend at either featherweight or lightweight and was stripped of both belts for inactivity. Daniel Cormier did make title defenses at both heavyweight and light heavyweight, but he had vacated the 205-pound strap by the time he put the heavyweight belt on the line last year. Henry Cejudo reigns at men's bantamweight and flyweight and has just one title defense, which came at bantamweight in January.
Nunes, who has made four defenses of the 135-pound title she won from Miesha Tate in 2016, added the 145-pound belt last December when she knocked out Cris Cyborg.
"I want to keep doing things nobody has seen before," Nunes said during an appearance on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show. "I want to be the first one to defend the two belts."
Nunes said she initially wanted Saturday's title bout to be at featherweight, the division where de Randamie briefly was champion in 2017. But the Dutchwoman, who has fought her last two fights at bantamweight, wanted to challenge at 135 pounds.
Nunes also said that last summer the UFC asked her if she was ready for a rematch with Cyborg, whose loss a year ago was her first in over 13 years, ending a 21-fight unbeaten run. But the fight did not get booked.
"She preferred to fight [Felicia] Spencer," Nunes said, "because I think it was the last fight on her contract and she wanted to renegotiate after to fight me. ... I think she wanted a little more money."
After Cyborg defeated Spencer in July, the UFC declined to offer her a new contract. Cyborg signed with Bellator in September.
Nunes had wanted the chance to defeat Cyborg a second time in order to promote the growth of women's MMA.
"The rematch would have had more eyes on it," she said. "It would have been good for both of us, not only me."
The 31-year-old Brazilian said she is proud to be known as the greatest female fighter in MMA history.
"This is the moment that I waited for my whole career, my whole life," she said. "I worked for that. I worked for putting my name on the top of the mountain."