Pena vs Nunes betting picks & best odds – UFC 277 main event

Amanda Nunes will attempt to reclaim the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship against Julianna Pena in the main event of UFC 277 this Saturday night. Here’s a preview for this highly anticipated rematch which highlights this weekend’s UFC card in Dallas, Texas.

Amanda Nunes record, stats & form

Amanda Nunes (21-5-0) suffered her first loss since 2014 in her last championship bout against Julianna Pena in December at UFC 269. Prior to that loss, Nunes was a perfect 12-0-0 with nine of those wins coming in championship fights across two different divisions. Nunes is widely considered to be the greatest women’s mixed martial artist of all time, and her resume includes wins over Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, and Valentina Shevchenko.

Julianna Pena record, stats & form

Julianna Pena (11-4-0) was the one to end Nunes’s stretch of dominance with her upset win in December, closing as a +600 underdog before going on to win that bout. Pena was just 2-2-0 in her previous four fights ahead of that upset win, but her strong chin and impressive submission skills were both on display at UFC 269 as she was able to withstand Nunes’s early attack and find a timely submission maneuver to steal the win. She’s an underdog again in this fight, but a much smaller one this time around.

Pena vs Nunes UFC 277 betting predictions

While it’s a bit unfair to Julianna Pena to simply chalk up her upset win over Amanda Nunes as an off night for the former champion, it’s also difficult not to do so. Nunes is an all-time great that should still have plenty of mileage left in her career at just 34 years old. It certainly seemed like something was missing in her last fight, whether it was complacency after so many years on top or perhaps a bad cut, Nunes didn’t seem like herself.

We know what we’re going to get from Pena in this fight, so the real question is what Nunes will bring. Was her loss at UFC 269 the sort of wake-up call that she needed to re-focus and to get back to being the dominant force that she was before? Or has a long career finally taken its toll and that fight was just the beginning of the end? Pena’s toughness and submission skills make her worth consideration at this price, but we are betting on Nunes to return to form with a convincing performance on Saturday.

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