UFC 245 takes place on Saturday December 14 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. On the main card, Germaine De Randamie will take on the two-division champion Amanda Nunes. Her opponent is riding a 9-fight win streak and has defended her belt four times. Whilst the risks for De Randamie are great, the rewards are arguably much greater.
The Dutch fighter fought and lost to Amanda Nunes in 2013. “The Lioness” relied on her signature punching power to seal the victory in the first round. De Randamie hasn’t lost a fight since their 2013 showdown. If she can vindicate her performance and defeat Nunes for the first time, De Randamie will become the 8th fighter in UFC history to hold belts in two divisions.
“The Iron Lady” faced Holly Holm in 2017 at UFC 208. She remained accurate and aggressive throughout and ultimately claimed the UFC’s inaugural women’s featherweight belt. She was eventually stripped of her featherweight title after allegedly refusing to fight Cris Cyborg. Nevertheless, the European fighter will go down in history as the first UFC women’s featherweight champion.
Germaine De Randamie admitted she didn’t want to fight Nunes at featherweight at UFC 245. Instead, the pair will collide in a bantamweight bout in the main event. If the Iron Lady can overthrow the current champion, she would become the second only female fighter in UFC history to claim both the featherweight and bantamweight title. The other, of course, is Nunes.
The 7 other members of the two-division championship club are Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo, Randy Couture, BJ Penn, Conor McGregor, Georges St-Pierre and Amanda Nunes. Henry Cejudo and Amanda Nunes are the only active two-division champions. The rest have either lost their belts or retired.
Do you think Germaine De Randamie has what it takes to become the 8th member of the UFC’s two-division champ club? Let us know in the comments below.
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 12/13/2019.