So I'm sure that you have already heard that Amanda Nunes won over Julia Budd via TKO at 14 secs of round one at the last night's Strikeforce show in Nashville. In case you haven't already seen the match, I am posting the match video. Blink and you might miss it. So Amanda Nunes was unknown to most fans and Julia Budd was very impressive in her MMA debut with a win over Shana Olsen. She's also bigger than Amanda. Regular readers of this blog should already be familiar with Amanda as I have been writing about her for a year and I conducted the first English interview with her. But a lot of fans didn't know about her and the blog has been getting a lot of Google Search hits for Amanda. I was surprised that the finish was so quick. But I wasn't surprised that Amanda won and Julia should have anticipated that Amanda would come out guns ablazing right from the start. That's how she fights. She's very aggressive and her power is very deceptive. The end result is the kneejerk reaction that Amanda is suddenly the top contender for Cris Cyborg's Strikeforce 145lb Championship. But Amanda can fight at either 135 or 145 and I like her better at 135. I understand the 145lb division is thin and Strikeforce doesn't have an opponent for Cris. But Amanda is 22 years old and with her potential, it would be a huge mistake to feed her to Cris. Fortunately, Amanda's manager Chris Vender agrees with me and plans to have Amanda fight at 135 for the forseeable future. This match was accepted because Amanda is in the US on a temporary visa and will return to Brazil in February. Then she'll get her working papers and return to Team Carvalho in Paterson, NJ permanently. Her family watched the match in her home town and I'm sure they are going crazy right now. Coming up on the undercard of the Jan. 29 Strikeforce show is renowned kickboxer Germain De Randamie vs Stephanie Webber. The winner of that match could be Amanda's next opponent. And there are other possible opponents. But I don't see Cris Cyborg in her immediate future. And don't give up on Julia Budd. She made a mistake and we'll see how she responds to the loss. Last night was a starmaking performance for Amanda Nunes. She's a great fighter and she also has "it". I'm always asked about "it". I don't know what "it" is but I know "it" when I see "it". And I knew last year that Amanda Nunes has "it". Enjoy the video.
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