There’s only one top contender in the UFC women’s bantamweight division who has a win over the current champion and her name is Cat Zingano.
Remember that UFC 178 card that was headlined by the flyweight title fight between Demetrious Johnson and Chris Cariaso?
It was pretty damn eventful.
The stacked event featured Conor McGregor’s sensational first round knockout of Dustin Poirier, Donald Cerrone giving Eddie Alvarez a rude awakening in his promotional debut, the highly controversial ‘stool gate’ incident in the fight between Yoel Romero and Dominick Cruz’s scarily impressive comeback fight against Takeya Mizugaki.
Kicking off the main card was a fight many people consider to be the greatest women’s bantamweight clash in the history of the sport, a three-round war between Zingano and future champion Amanda Nunes. After a back-and-forth battle for the opening two rounds, Zingano found another level in the final round and handed the Brazilian an ass whoopin’ that she’d never forget to earn a TKO victory.
The two warriors have had vastly different fortunes since that memorable battle back in 2014. Strangely, the bout marks the last time Zingano has tasted success inside the Octagon while also being the most recent loss on Nunes’ record.
Zingano fought Rousey for the title after that, but was caught with that lightning quick armbar that forced the tap just 14 seconds into the bout. She then took some time off and returned at UFC 200 where she was beaten by Julianna Pena via unanimous decision.
In that same period, Nunes has dusted all five opponents the matchmakers has put in front of her including Meisha Tate, whom she defeated to claim the belt at UFC 200, and Rousey in her first defence of that coveted golden strap. It is the way she is carrying herself after that recent win over ‘Rowdy’ that has rubbed ‘Alpha Cat’ the wrong way.
I'm not petitioning a rematch yet @Amanda_Leoa I'll earn it. You're disrespectful of @RondaRousey & I detest you being ungrateful @ufc
— Alpha Cat Zingano (@CatZingano) January 5, 2017
Although she didn’t going into detail about anything in particular, Zingano may well be referring to Nunes’ Instagram post not long after UFC 207. The undisputed champion scored a cheap dig at her downed opponent through the social media platform, sharing a photoshop of herself holding a UFC belt while pushing a buggy that contained an angry-looking infant-sized Rousey.
However, there is always the possibility that Zingano may not have even seen this as Nunes famously blocked her on Instagram a few hours after defending her title.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOvGYlkhMa-/
