'I am so happy with my life': Nunes becomes first openly gay UFC champion | UFC

Publish date: 2024-04-22
Amanda Nunes captured the UFC women’s bantamweight title on Saturday night. Photograph: Harry How/Zuffa LLC/Getty ImagesAmanda Nunes captured the UFC women’s bantamweight title on Saturday night. Photograph: Harry How/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images
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'I am so happy with my life': Nunes becomes first openly gay UFC champion

Amanda Nunes, whose first-round submission of Miesha Tate was the highlight of UFC 200, makes history as the organization’s first openly gay champion

With her victory over Miesha Tate at UFC 200 on Saturday Amanda Nunes became the first openly gay UFC fighter to win a title.

“It’s amazing, I am so happy with my life,” she said in a press conference after the fight.

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She then looked to the back of the interview tent where her girlfriend Nina Ansaroff, who is a UFC strawweight fighter, stood with the rest of her team and smiled.

“Nina is the best training partner I have in my life,” Nunes said.

Ansaroff buried her face in a towel as Nunes spoke.

“She is shy,” Nunes said laughing. “She is going to show everybody. She helps me every day … and I love her.”

Nunes has not hidden her sexuality. Her relationship with Ansaroff was known in the mixed martial arts world and she even showed up at Friday’s weigh-in wearing a “We are all fighters” shirt the organization is selling as part of a fundraiser for the Center For Southern Nevada, an organization that supports the Las Vegas area’s LGBT community.

The fact she would be the first openly gay champion was not discussed in the days before UFC 200. She did not raise the subject in press conferences and nobody asked her about it. But when the subject was finally raised on Saturday she nodded.

“She is going to be the next UFC champion,” Nunes said of her girlfriend. “I mean it.”

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