Germaine de Randamie was a perfect 46-0 with 30 knockouts in kickboxing, before turning her hand to mixed martial arts. She was 3-2 when she entered the UFC, and earned a Split Decision over Julie Kedzie in her big show debut.
In her next fight, at UFC: Fight for the Troops 3, on November 6, 2013, she lost to Amanda Nunes via Round 1 TKO, and didn’t fight again until 2015, TKOing Larissa Pacheco in two. Then she again waited over a year, winning a performance bonus for a Round 1 knee stoppage of Anna Elmose at UFC Fight Night 87 on May 8, 2016, in her home nation of The Netherlands. On February 11, 2017, at UFC 208, the bantamweight decisioned bantamweight Holly Holm for the inaugural UFC women’s featherweight title; it was later stripped after GDR was apparently not eager to fight Cris Cyborg.
Once again there was a wait over a year, and at UFC Fight Night 139 on November 10, 2018, de Randamie handily decisioned Raquel Pennington in a return to bantamweight. Next, at UFC on ESPN+ 13 on July 13, 2019, GDR destroyed Aspen Ladd, stopping her in 16 seconds. That earned a bantamweight title shot rematch at Amanda Nunes at UFC 245 on December 14, but de Randamie lost a one-sided decision. And at UFC on ESPN 16 on Saturday night, GDR earned her second UFC performance bonus, guillotining Julianna Pena in Round 3.
Germaine de Randamie’s is an unusual record, with just nine fights in the last eight years. It’s an extremely impressive run, going 9-2, and splitting title shots. But, as she noted unfavorably at the UFC on ESPN 16 post-fight press conference, the #1 contender in the division does not get a lot of fan attention.
I honestly believe I’m not getting the respect I believe I deserve,” said de Randamie, as transcribed by TheNational.ae. “I made history a lot of times in my career and I really did not get the respect. I’ve seen in the past that if you’re being a jerk you get respect here in the UFC. I don’t want to be a jerk; I want to stay true to myself. But I believe I deserve a little bit more respect for all I have done in my career.
I’m 36 years old, I have a full-time job, I train besides being a police officer. It’s not easy. I’m getting older and it’s not easy. But I still do it so I deserve a little bit more credit for that.
GDR was asked what it would take to get another shot at the champ champ Amanda Nunes.
Honesty I really don’t know, and honestly I couldn’t care less,” she replied. “Don’t get me wrong, I just love to fight. And whoever I have to face, I face. I just want to put up the entertaining fights; no boring fights. Give me an entertaining fight, even if it’s a title shot or not. Because I’m here as an entertainer.
Do you know how many belts I have? They get dust on them. I have to clean that, seriously. It would be cool, because I will be opening my own gym in January with my coach, so that new belt would sit fine in the new gym. We have a nice spot for it.
What would it take UG, for GDR to get more respect?
