Amanda Nunes’ Team Responds To Dana White’s ’90 Percent’ Comments

Woman’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes bailed on her UFC 213 title defense against Valentina Schevchenko on the day of the fight, however her team insists that Nunes’ illness began days earlier.

Naturally, UFC president Dana White criticized his champion for waiting until the very last minute to call off the fight, as he’s done with other champs who have done similar in the past (Renan Barao, Jon Jones…).

Nunes’ team came to her defense in response to White’s criticism, while defending her choice to pull out of the fight due to the illness they witnessed first hand.

“She was already feeling it before the weigh-ins,” Nunes’ coach Conan Silveira said. “Las Vegas is too hot, so I think that contributed to her chronic sinusitis, and the weight cut doesn’t help since you dehydrate. I don’t want to blame the weight cut, but it definitely doesn’t help.

“That has happened before, but we managed to come back, but it wasn’t as hard as this time. People don’t understand that that’s a big responsibility. You invest a lot to get to this position. You have to be 100 percent.”

“Critics and dumb people get together and form an opinion that doesn’t exist,” Silveira said. “Even fighters saying she was scared. Amanda is not scared of anyone. She retired Miesha Tate, she retired Ronda Rousey. Not to mention that she already beat Valentina by unanimous decision. How did she become scared now? Know the facts before you have your opinion.”

“If any other fighter is ill, nobody says anything. Everyone has this right. But she doesn’t because the champion? She has no right to get ill?” Silveira responds. “He’s the promoter and has his opinion. That’s what he got from the doctor. Amanda went back to the hospital the next morning (Saturday) and did other tests and they saw she had chronic sinusitis and gave her antibiotics.”

Silveira said the two will fight again as soon as Nunes feels fit to return and defend her title, although the UFC has not yet officially announced a new date as of today.

“The fight will happen. We want Valentina,” he said. “They will set a new date, and I’ll tell you this: the result won’t be any different than what we had planned. No disrespect to Valentina, she’s a great opponent and a great fight for Amanda, but our final answer will be on fight night, with Amanda defending her belt. That’s the best answer to those who talk too much.”

White had said that Nunes was cleared to fight by doctors, but insisted she was too ill to fight regardless. He later expanded on that view by stating Nunes’ withdrawal was ’90 percent mental’ and only 10 percent physical, something that’s an entirely speculative number that severed to drag one of his dominant current champions through the mud, even if she did essentially ruin one of the year’s biggest weekends the day of the main event bout.

Nunes and Schevchenko are believed to be fighting at UFC 215 in September, but the rematch has been made official as of yet.