'The Lioness' returns to the Achthoek, but her decision to come back is not alone, so that she can add another chapter to her legendary career.
At UFC 289, Amanda Nunes drove into the sunset after she successfully defended her Bantamweight title and announced her retirement within the Octagon.
Steping had been with the Brazilian star for a while, but her shock loss and the subsequent Rematch with Julianna Pena finally released her career with a few years.
With Pena that is now set to defend the title against Kayla Harrison in the Co-Main event of UFC 316, Nunes has already confirmed that she will return to face the winner.
As a Hall of Fame inductee for the 2024 class, the inheritance of the 36-year-old is already insured, but her decision to take the walk again was not only motivated by the prospect of Pena or Harrison later this year opposite Pena or Harrison.
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Amanda Nunes opens about the mental struggles that have led them to return to the UFC
It is a recurring theme in MMA that pensions do not take too long and that is because for many hunters it is difficult to switch from life that you have devoted yourself to for so long.
Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has openly spoken in the past how he fell in a number of difficult places when he has not booked a fight because having a training camp and a specific goal to concentrate on keeps him ahead.
Amanda Nunes recently pronounced a similar sentiment during an appearance on the UFC -orpeltered podcast after she had confirmed her comeback plans on UFC 314 in Miami.
2024 was the first full calendar year in which she has not participated in a professional MMA match that was the year before she made her pro -debut.
From 2008 to 2023, the former two-weight world champion 28-Fights got under its belt, including 12 consecutive UFC title fights.
As a result, Nunes revealed that her plans to lean back and relax after announcing her retirement, did not go how she expected that they would do that.
'De Leeuwin' said that having a goal to work towards was the kind of direction that she needed to help with some of the mental battles with which she had had to deal with since she had left her gloves in the Rogers Arena in Vancouver in the Rogers Arena.
“I literally thought that I might be able to do something else or maybe cool, enjoy, travel, travel, all these things, but after a year everything started to get so bad. I started to get fear. I started as if I didn't want to be here. When I go to Brazil, I always have a difficult time in everything.
“I had to come in again, I had to do something. I had to train, but I started training, eat clean, everything, but for which? I have no goal. So I can't train and I don't have a goal in my life, so I still feel good, I have no injuries, my muscle memory is still on point … If I still have it, where do I?”
Both outcome on UFC 316 would cause a big fight with Amanda Nunes
Regardless of who leaves UFC 316 with the Bantamweight title, it will cause a great confrontation for the return of Amanda Nunes to the Octagon.
'The Lioness' has history in which both women went 1-1 in her back-to-back fight with Julianna Pena shortly before retiring.
After having had a shock on UFC 269, Nunes rubbed her loss against Pena by beating her in a dominant way on UFC 277 to win the belt.
As far as Kayla Harrison is concerned, the presence of the former PFL star at the American top team was part of the reason why Nunes left the gym in Florida to work with a smaller camp.
A matchup between them has been a Dream Super -fight for many years, but we have now only removed one result.