Does The Lioness latest win puts her as Best in the Sport?

Amanda Nunes with a smirk across her face for most of the fight, put on a clinic against her latest challenger Felecia Spencer at UFC 250 pushing her winning streak to nine.

For 25 minutes, Nunes was dominant as ever, showcasing her amazing striking and grappling as she broke down the resilient Spencer. Nunes was just too much for the challenger, outclassing her in every aspect of the fight from striking to grappling and even takedowns going six of seven for the night while fending off all Spencer’s attempts. In just the first round of the fight, Nunes landed 21 significant strikes to Spencer’s two showing that Nunes is just in a different class from the rest. But what is that class? It is clear she is the best pound-for-pound women’s fighter, a rank she currently holds as she has run through two-divisions and has successfully defended both titles multiple times, a feat only a handful of fighters in UFC history has done. I’ll confidently say she is the G.O.A.T women’s fighter in MMA, surpassing Cris Cyborg, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and Ronda Rousey; all who have been dominant at one point in the sport. But after her latest performance over the weekend, I am ready to say she is the best fighter in the sport.

The lioness body of work is undeniable for such an accolade. She has conquered the featherweight and bantamweight divisions and has seemingly no challengers left to fight. Most of her bouts end early as she aggressively dominates her opponents. Her only real challenge of late came against Germaine de Randamie whom she already defeated twice and for the most part in dominant fashion.

Looking at the best fighters in the sport today, Jon Jones, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Max Holloway, and Henry Cejudo (before he retired) are the names that come to mind, but I think Nunes has a case against all of them. Jones is arguably her top competition for the title ‘Best in the sport’. His sustained greatness is hard to compete with but Nunes's current peak even outclasses his. The failed drug tests on Jones’ end are indeed a factor in this decision but what put Nunes over him for me was his lastest fight against Dominick Reyes, which wasn’t as impressive as his other fights, compared to the all-time great performances Nunes has put on recently. Like I mentioned earlier, she has cleaned out both divisions she currently reigns in. She has defeated literally all previous champions in both divisions including Rousey and Holly Holm whom she finished within a minute of the fight, Miesha Tate, Cyborg, and Randamie. And although Jones has defeated greats before as well, he hasn’t cleaned out an entire division as the Lioness has. She even went to the flyweight division where she defeated Valentina Shevchenko twice, Shevchenko only losses in a decade.

Nunes's current peak rivals Patrick Mahomes’s in the NFL and LeBron James in the NBA. Now we just have to wait and see if anyone can knock the queen of MMA of her throne and to be honest I don’t see that happening soon. And if that’s the case, she can go down as the G.O.A.T in the sport, not just the women’s division.