EXCLUSIVE | Amanda Nunes calls for fight with Holly Holm, shares ideal timeframe for bout

With Raquel Pennington currently sidelined with an injury, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes is now eyeing a fight with former champ Holly Holm for her next title defense.

“I’m ready to go,” the bantamweight champ said on the latest stacked episode of BJ Penn Radio. “I kind of don’t want to step in front of Cris Cyborg right now, because I know she wants to fight Holly Holm. But I don’t think this fight’s going to happen, and if Holly Holm comes down again, to 135 [pounds], we can do this. I want to defend my belt. I want to defend the 135 belt. Holly Holm is one of the only girls in this division [riding] a win, so I think she’s the one. I think if she’s not going to fight Cyborg, she has to come down and make this happen.”

“I think this fight makes perfect sense,” Nunes continued. “She’s the one in the division that makes the most sense. She has a lot of fans, and a lot of people want to see her [fight]. This matchup’s going to be awesome.”

Nunes then broke down this potential matchup with Holm:

“I’m going to try to take her head off – you know that. And of course, everybody knows that Holly Holm doesn’t have a very good ground, everybody knows her takedown defense is not that amazing,” she said. “I feel I can do anything, I can strike with her, I can take her down, I can move forward.”

The champ then reiterated that, despite Holm’s world-class striking and possible deficit in the grappling department, she’s content to stand with her. It’ll just come down to being careful.

“I will strike [with] her,” she said. “She has a dangerous kick, everybody knows that. I need to avoid that kick. It comes from nowhere. You have to really expect it; it comes from nowhere. You have to be ready for that. When I start my camp, I will have a breakdown of Holly Holm’s video. We’ll discuss strategy.”

Having made her interest in this fight abundantly clear, Nunes then gave a potential timeframe for it. She’s hoping for sometime in the first month or two of 2018.

“I’m ready for next year, for sure,” she said. “January or February. We’ll see.”

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This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 16/11/2017.