UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes is preparing to defend her gold in a rematch against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 213.
Nunes isn’t just confident that she can defeat Shevchenko again, but she also believes that there is nobody out there who can take the championship away from her.
"I'm always under some kind of pressure. At UFC 200 it was me being in the main event out of nowhere. UFC 207, against Ronda (Rousey), was all sorts of crazy. All this pressure coming from me being the only Brazilian with a belt only gives me more strength to hold on to it and remain the champion forever. There's nothing Valentina can do to take the belt from me. I'm going to leave it all in the Octagon. I will be victorious. I'm very well prepared, physically and mentally. Nobody will take the belt from me. I'm ready for anything,” Nunes said to Combate.
The two fighters first clashed at UFC 196 and since that night, neither Nunes or Shevchenko have lost a fight.
Even though Shevchenko has fought twice since her first meeting with Nunes, the champion doesn’t see anything new to the challengers skill set.
"She has two wins, but she hasn't changed anything. She's still the same athlete, but she's tough. Anything can happen in MMA, you can't make mistakes, you have to pay attention to everything. I'm expecting her to come out strong and I'll be strong to defend the belt. I'm more mature since the first fight. My confidence is twice as big since then. I'm the champion, I used to be nobody. I was looking for a place in the sun and now I'm the champion. I need to remain the champion and that's what's happening,” says Nunes.
UFC 213 takes place on Saturday, July 8 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
