Amanda Nunes is the greatest female fighter in UFC history, but Australian Megan Anderson isn’t intimated by the two-division champion.
Nunes will defend her featherweight title on Sunday (AEDT) at UFC 259 against Anderson, who hasn’t fought since February of last year when she defeated Norma Dumont to earn a shot at the belt.
Anderson has struggled against the organisation’s elite — losing to Holly Holm in 2018 and Felicia Spencer in 2019 — but doesn’t believe Nunes represents an insurmountable task.
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“I have a lot of respect for Amanda — she’s an incredible athlete,” Anderson told Fox Sports’ Fight Week, which airs Tuesday at 8.30pm (AEDT) on Channel 503.
“But I don’t really think of her with that aura like a lot of other people do.
“She’s just a human, like everybody else. And yes, she’s been on a very dominant streak, but the same was said about Cris Cyborg, the same was said about Ronda Rousey, and look what happened to those two competitors.
“I’m not really thinking too much about that, because at the end of the day you’ll get caught in fighting the name, and not the person. I don’t want to fight the name, I”m fighting the person.
“It’s just her and I in the cage. You have to kind of just strip it back to what it is … just two people in a cage, she bleeds the same as I do.”
Of course, it was Nunes who put Rousey away for good. It was also Nunes who finally dethroned Cyborg.
Nevertheless, Anderson labelled the Brazilian superstar “predictable” ahead of their co-main event showdown on a stacked card in Las Vegas.
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“She’s fundamentally very sound; [she has] very good boxing, good wrestling, good grappling,” Anderson said.
“But she’s not very flashy. She doesn’t do very many things. She has her system, and it works for her, but it makes her a little predictable because she goes for the same things again and again.”
Anderson added: “She is very good at being the hammer, but she isn’t very good at being the nail.
“And in the positions where she has been the nail, she hasn’t necessarily been able to turn it around as dominantly as she does when she’s just on a tear, she’s just constantly walking forward and implementing whatever she wants.
“So, we’re going to try put her back on the back foot, put her on the cage and really put her in positions that she hasn’t been in in a very long time.”
Watch the full Megan Anderson on Fight Week at 8.30pm (AEDT) on Channel 503!
