Julianna Pena Upsets Amanda Nunes as 7-1 Underdog to Win UFC Women’s Bantamweight Title

Julianna Pena Upsets Amanda Nunes as 7-1 Underdog to Win UFC Women’s Bantamweight Title article feature image
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Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC. Pictured: Amanda Nunes (Left) takes a punch from Julianna Pena.

Julianna Pena shocked the world Saturday night when she defeated the No. 1 pound-for-pound woman in the UFC and double champion Amanda Nunes.

Per John Ewing of BetMGM, Pena's moneyline opened at +500, she closed at +700 entering Saturday night's co-main event and was +1100 to win after Round 1. Nunes closed as a -1200 favorite (92.1% implied odds) and was -3000 to win after Round 1.

In Round 2, Pena out-landed Nunes 74-36 in Significant Strikes and was able to take Nunes' back to score a submission win — the odds on that exact win condition pre-fight were +1600, according to Ewing.

Julianna Peña talked the talk, then walked the walk with the submission on Amanda Nunes and shocked the world pic.twitter.com/uINYg6kFOl

— George Balekji (@GeorgeBalekji) December 12, 2021

As far as upsets go, this ranks near the top in the history of the sport. Nunes entered the bout on a 12-fight winning streak (third-longest active streak behind Kamaru Usman and Jon Jones) and Nunes was one win short of 10 title fights wins, which would have put her in sole possession of the fifth-most title fight wins all time in the UFC.

According to Tapology, Pena is the fourth-biggest underdog to win in the UFC, tied with Frankie Saenz who also cashed as +700 dog in 2015 (h/t our our own Sean Zerillo).

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