Dan Lambert: Amanda Nunes deserves recognition as one of the pound-for-pound greatest of all-time

Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Amanda Nunes has already accomplished a lot during her UFC career.

She currently reigns as both the women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion with wins over every single fighter to ever hold a title at either 135 or 145 pounds. This weekend, Nunes will attempt to reach even more rarified air when she defends her featherweight title against Felicia Spencer in the UFC 250 main event.

A win on Saturday night would make Nunes the first women in UFC history to not only hold two titles but defend both successfully. The only other person to do that is Daniel Cormier when he was both heavyweight and light heavyweight champion.

Over the course of her current 10-fight win streak, Nunes has steamrolled names like Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm and Cris Cyborg. In fact none of them made it out of the first round with Nunes.

American Top Team owner Dan Lambert has been with Nunes since long before she arrived in the UFC and he’s seen the amazing things she’s been able to accomplish. While any debate about the mythical “greatest of all time” always comes down to a subjective opinion, Lambert doesn’t see how there’s any argument against Nunes already solidifying her spot on that list when it comes to the women’s division.

In his mind, Nunes is now competing for a different kind of recognition amongst her peers.

“If it’s a conversation on the female GOAT, I don’t think there’s another name you can throw into the mix and have an argument over,” Lambert told MMA Fighting. “Pound-for-pound GOAT is what I think she’s working her way into the mix on. Male, female, weight division, anything. I think her name should be in that mix right now.

“If you look at the run she’s been on, the champions she’s beaten, the ex-champions she’s beaten. The manner in which she’s beaten them and made it look so effortless, two divisions, I think her name should be in that hat with the other all-time greats, Jon Jones, D.C. (Daniel Cormier), GSP (Georges St-Pierre). I think her name is right there in that mix, male or female.”

It’s hard to argue against Lambert’s logic when comparing Nunes’ current run to any other champion in UFC history.

As far as the conversation in just the women’s divisions, the American Top Team co-founder says that debate is already settled.

“Just strictly females, it’s obviously not as big a pool of names. It hasn’t been around as long but I don’t think there’s anybody on the female side that can throw their name in that ring versus her,” Lambert said.

While there are a long list of wins that help make Nunes’ case as the greatest women’s fighter of all time already, Lambert sees one name at the top of that list above all the others.

“If you just want to look at how good a fighter Holly Holm versus [Valentina] Shevchenko versus [Cris] Cyborg, versus Ronda [Rousey], versus Miesha [Tate], yeah I think Shevchenko is a better fighter than all of them,” Lambert said. “Two wins over Valentina Shevchenko speaks absolute volumes.”