Amanda Nunes wasn’t expecting a call for a Ronda Rousey rematch anytime soon – especially with Rousey seemingly ignoring they fought altogether.
This Saturday, Nunes returns from a three-year retirement to challenge bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison in the co-main event of UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden in New York. “The Lioness” walked away from competition after a legendary 14-1 run that included a 48-second knockout win over Rousey at UFC 207, and lengthy title reigns at both 135 and 145 pounds.
Rousey also returned to competition in 2026, following a near-10-year layoff, defeating fellow women’s combat sports pioneer Gina Carano at the inaugural MVP MMA event this past May. On the MIGHTYcast, Nunes was asked if Rousey reached out to her as a potential comeback opponent.
“Ronda, to this day, she doesn’t acknowledge I fought her,” Nunes said. “She never say one word, she never say my name one time in her whole entire life. So they never called me.
“I’m UFC all the way. This was my dream, and I want to fight in the UFC. The UFC belt is the belt. This is the belt for me. I don’t want to have any other belt on my wall, so that is the belt that I always chase and I’m going to get a brand new one soon.”
A bout outside of the UFC was never a realistic possibility for Nunes, who was already tied to matchup with Harrison, her former training partner. The two were expected to fight at UFC 324 in January, but Harrison was forced to withdraw due to neck surgery and the fight was postponed.
So Nunes was free to continue training at her own pace and to enjoy Rousey vs. Carano as a fan.
“I think it was great for women’s MMA,” Nunes said. “It was huge. Ronda has a lot of fans, have a lot more people that like her than hate her. I feel like she should look more for those people that’s like her. For Gina, we have Gina from back in the day, it was amazing seeing Gina fight, so everybody was so excited and everybody wins with that fight.
“But I feel like Gina was so long out, she comes back to fight Ronda, I feel like she was not always that powerful just because Gina was out for so long and had problems. It was good for her to come back, Ronda helped her a lot to overcome so many things.”
Nunes was also asked about her choice for a women’s MMA Mount Rushmore, which she discussed on a recent episode of the Deep Waters podcast.
She named herself, and fellow UFC champions Valentina Shevchenko, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and Zhang Weili, but noticeably omitted famous rivals Rousey and Cris Cyborg. Explaining her reasoning, Nunes said it was simply a matter of numbers and didn’t intend any disrespect to either woman.
“Honestly, I can put them there, too,” Nunes said. “When I say those things, if I had more spots, I would have put them, too. I feel like Ronda, Cyborg’s in that, I cannot pick four. We have a lot of great women out there that did so much, so I cannot get four. I don’t want to get four, I want to get more than that.”
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