What follows is the second installment of a multi-part story on Amanda Nunes. I cut each main section into pieces and am releasing it one day at a time, like I’m Charles Dickens trying to add interesting copy to Embedded episodes.
It is that which Nunes controls that has made her special. She didn’t choose a path in life, she created one. Every obstacle in the world was against her trying – not against her succeeding but against her even trying in the first place.
She started fighting in 2008, years before Ronda Rousey ever threw a punch. Glass ceiling? Nunes wishes. She was fighting in Brazil in front of crowds of 50 people who maybe had chairs but definitely had dirt beneath their feet. There weren’t regulations and safety protocols, there was just Nunes and another woman, the two of them looked at as sideshow attractions at best.
Catcalls would be more common than cheers; “show us your tits” more frequent than “good job.” Nevertheless, she persisted. She fought to simply fight. Train at gyms full of men on the mats, fight at shows full of men in the crowd, and do it for nothing.
Anyone can train hard when there is fame and fortune at stake; few can sweat until they pass out, and run until the soles of their feet bleed for the ethereal notion of “love of sport” – particularly when that sport is really nothing more than glorified violence for violence’s sake.
UFC 213 Embedded Part Two
- Women’s Bantamweight Championship Amanda Nunes (c) vs. Valentina Shevchenko
- BS INTERIM Middleweight Title Yoel Romero vs. Robert Whittaker
- Heavyweight Daniel Omielańczuk vs. Curtis Blaydes
Welterweight Robbie Lawler vs. Donald Cerrone- Heavyweight Fabricio Werdum vs. Alistair Overeem
- Lightweight Anthony Pettis vs. Jim Miller
- Heavyweight Travis Browne vs. Oleksiy Oliynyk
- Welterweight Jordan Mein vs. Belal Muhammad
- Welterweight Chad Laprise vs. Brian Camozzi
- Middleweight Thiago Santos vs. Gerald Meerschaert
- Bantamweight Douglas Silva de Andrade vs. Rob Font
- Featherweight Cody Stamann vs. Terrion Ware
- Light Heavyweight Trevin Giles vs. James Bochnovic
UFC products you can actually buy!
