Zingano rips Nunes: 'If there was no Ronda there would be no Amanda'
Cat Zingano doesn't like seeing her fellow fighters - even former rivals - being kicked while they're down.
"Alpha" watched women's bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes demolish Ronda Rousey in just 48 seconds at UFC 207, and while she couldn't help but give her former conquest her due for the impressive victory, she was equally as appalled by the comments the champ made at Rousey's expense during her postfight interview.
"Amanda was great, she went out there and beat her decisively, quickly," Zingano told MMA Fighting's Chuck Mindenhall. "Immediately when the fight was stopped I was like, damn, good show. Props. And then, within two minutes, my entire impression and everything changed. Because as soon as they handed Amanda the microphone she just started going off, and being completely disrespectful and being an asshole, being like, 'forget Ronda, forget Ronda.'"
Prior to suffering her second straight knockout loss, Rousey cemented her place as a veritable trailblazer in women's MMA with a record-setting reign as 135-pound champion, during which she dispatched six opponents. Zingano - who faltered in her effort to dethrone Rousey at UFC 184 - condemned Nunes for her lack of respect for the former champ's laundry list of accomplishments and efforts to catapult women's MMA to mainstream heights.
"It’s like, first of all, if there was no Ronda there would be no Amanda. No one would know who the hell you are, and we wouldn’t be here today. And on top of that, Ronda as an athlete, she found a way. She found a way to get us in, and it was by being an asshole. And it was by being entertaining, whether it was positive or negative, she gave everybody what they wanted to see, which was either to hate to love her, or love to hate her. She gave that to people."
Zingano handed Nunes her last loss in the Octagon - a third-round TKO back at UFC 178 - and called out the reigning champ shortly after she'd vanquished Rousey, but maintained she'd earn her shot at the Brazilian's strap with her fists as opposed to her mouthpiece.
"I’m not trying to hype a fight. I’m not trying to get my title shot right away, I want to earn it. I have gotten what I needed to out of my losses, which was that I hate to fucking lose. I didn’t lose to get a title shot. I didn’t lose to boast of how good I am. I lost so I could learn what I needed to learn, and make the changes necessary to get to where I am today."