Outside Source
Although Amanda Nunes shocked the world with her 51-second knockout of Cris Cyborg in the co-main event of UFC 232, American Top Team coach Conan Silveira was not surprised by the dramatic conclusion to the featherweight title bout.
Nunes has been heralded as the greatest female MMA fighter of all time on the back of the emphatic title capture and Silveira is adamant that he didn’t see the fight going any other way.
“I knew that we were leaving that night with the belt,” Silveira told Luke Thomas on the latest episode of The MMA Hour.
“We had the strategy, she was really well-trained for any situation the fight would [bring]. What happened was, Amanda is extremely dangerous when she sees an opening and I think it was a big mistake from Cyborg to try and exchange with her. [Amanda] is very precise and she has extremely heavy hands and that’s the way the fight finished—Amanda knocking her out.”
Silveira claimed that some male fighters who frequent ATT don’t want to train with Nunes due to her devastating power.
“Amanda doesn’t have any girl training partners, she only has male training partners. It’s not every fighter that trains with her, some of the guys don’t like to train with her because she hits hard. I think that’s pretty much a good explanation for her: she hits like a man,” he said.
However, it’s not just the double champion’s power that has helped her to climb to the top of the ladder in women’s mixed martial arts, according to the Brazilian coach.
“You have to compare a complete MMA fighter to the best actors. When you’re acting and you can only try to be one type of character, you wanna be the good guy, but being the good guy in every movie isn’t going to win you an Oscar. [Amanda] is an actor or actress that can play anything, it doesn’t matter. You see it in acting and you see it in fights; she plays a different character for every fight.
“Amanda has all the tools. [It’s not like she only knows] a little bit on the ground and a little bit of striking, she speaks fluently everywhere. Like I said, for every situation that happens, she knows how to answer the question,” he said.
This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts
