Yahoo! Sports spoke with Amanda Nunes about her co-main event spot on the UFC 215 card against Valentina Shevchenko this Saturday. Nunes was vocal about her lack of promotion in the lead up to her destruction of Ronda Rousey and just in general. She seems okay with it now hearing what she had to say to the site.
I honestly don’t care in this moment. If they want to promote me, make me a focus, cool. That’s good for both of us and there would be more money for me, of course. But if no, if they don’t want to promote me, that’s cool, too. I have money. I made more money than I ever thought. And I would hate it if I had to get a bodyguard to be with me everywhere I go. No. I don’t want that. I want to be able to walk around like a normal person. I don’t want my family to have to go through that.
I know I’m not the beautiful girl and I don’t have the blonde hair and the blue eyes. I am not the kind of face the UFC wants to put out there, but I’m OK with that. I’m going to live my life and be happy. If the UFC decides to promote me that would be awesome, but I trust them. The UFC knows what they are doing. If they think they should promote someone else, fine. Just give me the fights and let me do my job and I will be happy. Whatever the UFC decides is fine with me. I’m just a fighter and that’s just what I want to do more than anything else: Let me fight
Style over substance has always been an issue in combat sports. Chael Sonnen sold pay per views with his wrestling bad guy type promos in many losing efforts including a less than stellar performance against Tito Ortiz. Nick Diaz is an amazing fighter with a decent overall record but his antics in and out of the cage are what sell his fights. In contrast, a fighter like Demetrious Johnson who has tied Anderson Silva’s record of 10 title defenses still draws low PPV buys. One could argue that it’s the weight class he is in or that he isn’t a showman, or a Sonnen like talker.
Amanda Nunes is an amazing fighter for sure yet she still doesn’t seem to have broken through to the mainstream. Why do you think that is?