Daniel Cormier & Amanda Nunes Among Names Nominated For ESPY Awards
Daniel Cormier & Amanda Nunes were among fighters listed for the first-ever MMA category at the ESPYS.
On Wednesday, it was announced that mixed martial arts (MMA) will have its own category as boxing and MMA won’t share the “ESPY Best Fighter” category. Instead, the two sports will be split into “ESPY Best Boxer” and “ESPY Best MMA Fighter.”
The ceremony will take place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 10 and air live on ABC beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Here are the fighters nominated:
- UFC interim middleweight champion Israel Adesanya
- UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier
- UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo
- UFC women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was the first to take home the “Best Fighter ESPY Award” in 2015. In 2016, former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor took home the award. Finally, in 2017, former UFC flyweight king Demetrious Johnson earned the award.
Cormier was able to successfully retain his title over Derrick Lewis at UFC 230. The fight served as the main event of the PPV at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and his latest outing.
In his latest fight, Adesanya beat Kelvin Gastelum by decision in the co-headliner of the UFC 236 PPV event. The show went down on April 13, 2019, at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
Cejudo made history in the headliner of the UFC 238 PPV event from the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. He picked up a win over Marlon Moraes to win the vacant bantamweight strap.
Nunes knocked out Cris Cyborg in the first round in the co-headliner of UFC 232 to win the UFC women’s featherweight title. The contest, which marked her last fight, went down on December 29, 2018, at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
