Amanda Nunes batters Julianna Peña to regain UFC women’s bantamweight belt

Amanda Nunes won a unanimous five-round decision over Julianna Peña in the main event of UFC 277 on Saturday night at to regain the women’s bantamweight championship that she lost last December.

Nunes (22-5), nicknamed ‘The Lioness’, is again a double-champion, already holding the featherweight belt. The judges’ scoring was 50-45, 50-44 and 50-43.

Peña beat Nunes last December at Las Vegas to claim the title in one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.

Saturday’s fight was the first title defense for Peña (12-5) in the 135lb division.

Brandon Moreno won the co-main event with a third-round TKO over Kai Kara-France in a scheduled five-round bout to take possession of the interim men’s flyweight championship belt.

Nunes dropped Peña three times in the second round, twice on right hooks and then with a left to the forehead. Nunes took down Peña midway through the third round and kept her on the mat, punching to the head to open cuts along Peña’s hairline that left blood splattered on the mat.

Nunes had Peña on her back again for much of the fourth and fifth rounds. Peña’s face was streaked with blood that stained much of the mat.

Referee Herb Dean stopped the fight between Moreno and Kara-France at 4:34 after Moreno, sporting a deep cut under his right eye with blood streaming down his face and onto his chest, landed a liver kick that dropped Kara-France. Moreno then finished him off.

Moreno (20-6), from Tijuana, Mexico, came in as the division’s top-ranked contender and Kara-France (24-10), from New Zealand, second. Moreno was backed by a crowd that chanted “Mo-re-no!” and “Me-xi-co!” at times during the match.

Deiveson Figueiredo regained the flyweight belt from Moreno last January with a unanimous decision in a trilogy