Megan Anderson Needs Historic Upset to Take Featherweight Title from Amanda Nunes

Amanda Nunes has proven herself to be one of the most dominant UFC champions of all time. Oddsmakers expect that run to continue on Saturday night when Nunes defends her women’s featherweight title against Megan Anderson at UFC 259.

Nunes comes into the fight riding an 11-fight winning streak, including victories over some of the biggest names in the history of women’s MMA.

Nunes expects battle from Anderson

The 32-year-old Nunes (20-4) holds both the UFC bantamweight and featherweight titles. She holds wins over Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, Valentina Shevchenko, Cris Cyborg, and Holly Holm, among others. Most experts regard her as the greatest women’s mixed martial artist of all time.

That’s the kind of resume that makes you a huge favorite over anyone you face. PointsBet rates Nunes as a -1110 pick over Anderson (+600), a massive number for a title fight. But Nunes says that no matter what the odds may say, she won’t take anything for granted on Saturday.

“I feel this fight is going to be awesome, it’s going to be a battle,” Nunes told UFC Embedded. “Megan is a pretty tough opponent. I know she will bring it and I’m going to be ready. She’s long, she knows how to use her reach, but over here we have a lot of options on who I train with to get ready for her. I know my timing is good, my wrestling is pretty sharp, my ground game is pretty on point, as well as my striking.”

Anderson (11-4) holds a few edges going into the fight. As Nunes said, the challenger is longer and taller. Anderson has also shown plenty of knockout power during her career: of her last seven wins, six have come by TKO or knockout, with the other being a first-round submission of Zarah Fairn dos Santos.

Turning the hammer into a nail

Anderson says her best path to victory will be putting Nunes on the defensive, a place the champion rarely finds herself.

“She is a phenomenal hammer. And as soon as she gets momentum, she’s incredibly hard to stop,” Anderson told ESPN’s Phil Murphy. “She’s a very good hammer, but she’s not a very good nail. She doesn’t do anything flashy, but it also makes her a little bit predictable because she doesn’t do anything flashy. She’s very good in that aspect, but she also doesn’t do very good when the roles are reversed and she’s not being the aggressor.”

PointsBet doesn’t see this fight going the distance, with both Nunes (+120) and Anderson (+1300) most likely to win by KO or TKO. The fight could well end early, with the sportsbook offering just +106 on the fight going under 1.5 rounds.

Regardless of what the numbers say, though, Anderson thinks she can shock the world this weekend.

“I’m very good at trap setting. I’m very good at deceptive work,” Anderson said. “I just hope she doesn’t underestimate me. Because what you’ve seen and what I’m capable of are very different.”