Megan Anderson departs UFC: Is women’s 145 on life support?
Just days removed from her submission loss to women’s featherweight champion Amanda Nunes, Megan Anderson finds herself no longer a part of the UFC.
UFC officials confirmed the news to other media outlets after Anderson herself revealed during a Twitch stream that she was now a free agent following the bout with Nunes – the final fight on her contract.
UFC President Dana White told media following UFC 259 that women’s 145 would remain a part of the roster as long as Nunes wished to keep defending the belt. Nunes’ next move appears to be another drop to defend her 135-pound title in the future. White also said at the UFC 259 post-fight press conference that Juliana Peña could be next for Nunes.
“Julianna Peña has been texting all of us all night,” White said. “She’s been busy. Yeah, we could do that.”
Anderson, who went 3-3 in the UFC, said the promotion is planning on dropping the division as a whole. The above comment from White was the only one offered on fight night about the division’s future. The only women’s featherweight bout scheduled at the moment is Felicia Spencer vs. Danyelle Wolf on May 22.
Nunes is 3-0 as a featherweight in the UFC, a division originally built entirely around Cris “Cyborg” Justino before she joined Bellator. The shallow division has featured multiple instances of 135-pound fighters moving up to provide Cyborg and Nunes challenges.
Nunes wants Peña to have another bout with Germaine de Randamie but Peña is very much against the idea.
“The funny thing about Nunes wanting me to fight Germaine, like, you didn’t ask Holly to fight one more, you didn’t ask Megan Anderson to fight one more, you didn’t ask Felicia Spencer to fight one more,” Peña said in a recent interview.
“All these girls are new to the division with .500 records but for me, for some reason, it’s always, ‘Oh, she’s got to fight one more. She’s got to be in the mix.’ I’ve been in the mix. I’ve been here. I’ve been fighting just as long as she has and I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that she would ask me to fight one more, again, especially since Holly pulled out.”
Peña recently spoke to ESPN about the situation in the video below.
“She hasn’t defended her title at 135 pounds since 2019,” Peña said previously. “So if she needs longer time to cut the weight and come down to 135 since she says she’s super big right now, then I’ll wait if that’s what it means to be able to fight for the title.”
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