When Miesha Tate announced she was ending her retirement and returning to competition earlier this year, she had every intention of fighting her way toward another championship opportunity opposite of Amanda Nunes, the woman who reigned over the women’s bantamweight division for five years.
However, before Tate could fulfill that goal, Nunes’ reign had come to a shocking end, courtesy of Julianna Peña in one of the greatest upsets in UFC history at UFC 269 this past Saturday. Peña survived the first-round onslaught from Nunes and went on to wear down the former champion en route to a second-round rear-naked choke, which was just the second time in her professional career that Nunes had been submitted.