UFC 250: Nunes vs. Spencer | Event Profile, Full Results & Legacy
- Tito Wordsmith
- 18 hours ago
- 7 min read
Introduction
UFC 250: Nunes vs. Spencer took place on Saturday, June 6, 2020 at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the first numbered UFC pay-per-view ever held at the company's purpose-built APEX facility, the second closed-door numbered card of the COVID era, and the night Amanda Nunes underlined her status as the most accomplished women's MMA fighter ever to live.
The card delivered five finishes on the main card, including a Cody Garbrandt buzzer-beating walk-off KO of Raphael Assuncao that was widely circulated as the Knockout of the Year for several months, an 88-second rear-naked choke from Aljamain Sterling, and another first-round KO bonus from Sean O'Malley. The main event, by contrast, was a five-round mauling: Amanda Nunes outstruck Felicia Spencer 122-31 in significant strikes and won by unanimous decision (50-44, 50-45, 50-44) in one of the most lopsided five-round title fights in any UFC women's division.
Contents
• FAQ
Quick Stats
📅 Date: Saturday, June 6, 2020
📍 Venue: UFC APEX, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
👥 Attendance: 0 (closed-door, COVID-19 era)
💰 Gate: $0 (no live audience)
📺 PPV Buys: ~350,000
📡 Broadcast: Pay-per-view (ESPN+ in USA)
🏆 Main Event: Amanda Nunes (c) vs. Felicia Spencer — UFC Women's Featherweight Championship (145 lbs)
✅ Result: Nunes def. Spencer via Unanimous Decision (50-44, 50-45, 50-44)
🥇 Co-Main: Aljamain Sterling def. Cory Sandhagen via Submission (rear-naked choke) — R1, 1:28 — Bantamweight
The Build-Up
Amanda Nunes entered UFC 250 as the consensus women's pound-for-pound number one and the only simultaneous two-division UFC champion in women's history (bantamweight and featherweight). She had not lost in seven years and had finished both Holly Holm and Cris Cyborg in 51 seconds combined across two title bouts. Going into UFC 250, her resume already included finish wins over five UFC champions: Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Holm, Cyborg, and Germaine de Randamie.
Felicia Spencer was a 29-year-old former Invicta featherweight champion making her second UFC appearance after a competitive five-round loss to Cris Cyborg at UFC 240 in July 2019. She was on a three-fight UFC win streak; her record was 8-1 entering UFC 250. The matchup was widely viewed as an extreme talent gap, with Spencer a +800 underdog — one of the heaviest underdogs in any UFC title fight that year.
The co-main was a #1 contender match in bantamweight, both Aljamain Sterling and Cory Sandhagen riding multi-fight win streaks and angling for the title vacated by Henry Cejudo's UFC 249 in-cage retirement four weeks earlier.
Main Event: Nunes vs. Spencer
The fight went as expected, only more lopsidedly. Amanda Nunes outclassed Felicia Spencer in every phase. Round one was Nunes circling at distance and landing the left hook at will. Round two was Nunes in the clinch, working knees and short elbows. Round three was a full-takedown round, with Nunes scoring 4 of 5 attempts and grinding ground-and-pound for nearly the entire frame. Spencer's right eye was visibly closing by the end of round two and was fully closed by round four.
Final significant-strike count: Nunes 122, Spencer 31. Takedowns: 4 of 5 for Nunes, 0 of 1 for Spencer. Two of the three scorecards were 50-44 — a 10-8 round registered — and the third was 50-45. The fight had been, in essence, a championship sparring session, with Nunes never threatened at any moment. Spencer's gameness in absorbing five rounds of punishment without being finished was its own form of testament.
In her post-fight interview, Nunes praised Spencer's heart and turned to the camera to address her next title defenses: a possible rematch with Cyborg, a possible bantamweight defense against Sterling's eventual winner. Within nine months she would face the bantamweight challenge — against Megan Anderson at UFC 259 — and dispatch her in three minutes. Nunes would not lose until December 2021 against Julianna Peña.
Co-Main Event: Sterling vs. Sandhagen
88 seconds. Aljamain Sterling shot a low single from the opening exchange, transitioned to back control as Sandhagen attempted to scramble, and sunk a rear-naked choke that Sandhagen tapped to at 1:28 of round one. It was one of the cleanest title-eliminator finishes in modern bantamweight history.
Sterling's win locked in his title shot against Petr Yan, which would materialise at UFC 259 in March 2021 in one of the most chaotic title fights of the decade — Sterling winning by DQ after an illegal knee. He would defend the title successfully at UFC 273 and UFC 280 before losing it to Sean O'Malley at UFC 292.
Full Results
Main Card (Pay-Per-View)
Amanda Nunes (c) def. Felicia Spencer — Unanimous Decision (50-44, 50-45, 50-44) — Women's Featherweight Title
Aljamain Sterling def. Cory Sandhagen — Submission (rear-naked choke) — R1, 1:28 — Bantamweight
Cody Garbrandt def. Raphael Assuncao — KO (punch) — R2, 4:59 — Bantamweight
Sean O'Malley def. Eddie Wineland — KO (punch) — R1, 1:54 — Bantamweight
Neil Magny def. Anthony Rocco Martin — Unanimous Decision (29-28 ×3) — Welterweight
Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Alex Caceres def. Chase Hooper — Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) — Featherweight
Maki Pitolo def. Charles Byrd — TKO (punches) — R2, 4:31 — Middleweight
Ian Heinisch def. Gerald Meerschaert — Unanimous Decision (30-27 ×3) — Middleweight
Cody Stamann def. Brian Kelleher — Unanimous Decision (29-28 ×3) — Bantamweight
Bonuses & Awards
🥇 Performance of the Night: Cody Garbrandt — $50,000 for the walk-off KO of Raphael Assuncao with one second left in round two.
🥇 Performance of the Night: Sean O'Malley — $50,000 for the first-round KO of Eddie Wineland.
🥇 Performance of the Night: Aljamain Sterling — $50,000 for the 88-second rear-naked choke of Cory Sandhagen.
Records & Milestones
• First numbered UFC pay-per-view ever held at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas — the start of a 13-month run of closed-door PPV cards at the APEX or Fight Island.
• Nunes's second successful UFC Women's Featherweight Championship defense — part of a 12-fight winning streak that ran from September 2014 to December 2021.
• Significant-strike disparity (122-31) was one of the largest in any UFC women's title fight of the modern era.
• Cody Garbrandt's KO of Assuncao at 4:59 of round two was widely circulated as one of the Knockouts of the Year for 2020.
• Sean O'Malley's first KO win at the UFC main-card level — part of his early ascent to bantamweight stardom.
• Aljamain Sterling's seventh consecutive UFC win, locking in his eventual bantamweight title shot.
Legacy & Impact
UFC 250 served two distinct purposes. The first was operational: it proved the UFC APEX could host a numbered pay-per-view, validating the closed-door business model the company would lean on for the rest of 2020. The second was narrative: it confirmed Amanda Nunes's place atop the all-time women's MMA hierarchy by handing her the most one-sided title-fight win of her career on a card built around her.
For the bantamweight division, UFC 250 was the night the post-Cejudo era began. Aljamain Sterling's submission of Cory Sandhagen set the table for the chaotic Yan vs. Sterling title fight at UFC 259 (March 2021) and the subsequent run of UFC 267, 273, and 280 bantamweight defenses. Cody Garbrandt's walk-off KO of Assuncao briefly looked like a return to form for the former 135-pound champion — although his subsequent fights would not bear that out.
For Sean O'Malley, the Wineland KO was an early career-defining moment: a clean technical KO from a calf-kick setup that drew comparisons to a young Conor McGregor. It cemented O'Malley as the UFC's most-marketable bantamweight prospect of the post-COVID era and started his three-year ascent to the bantamweight title he would win at UFC 292 in August 2023.
FAQ
Was UFC 250 the first PPV at the UFC APEX?
Yes. UFC 250 was the first numbered UFC pay-per-view ever held at the company's purpose-built APEX facility in Las Vegas. The 130,000-square-foot APEX had hosted Fight Night-level events since 2019, but UFC 250 was its first PPV. After the success, the UFC ran several more APEX-hosted PPVs through 2020 (UFC 252, 255, and 256) before the venue capacity was expanded with seating in 2021.
How dominant was Amanda Nunes's main event win?
Statistically, one of the most dominant five-round title-fight wins in any UFC women's division. Final significant-strike count: Nunes 122, Spencer 31. Two of the three scorecards were 50-44 — indicating at least one 10-8 round — with the third 50-45. Nunes landed 4 of 5 takedown attempts. Spencer absorbed five rounds of punishment without being finished, but never threatened to win a moment of the fight.
Who got bonuses at UFC 250?
Three Performance of the Night bonuses ($50,000 each) and no Fight of the Night. The bonuses went to Cody Garbrandt (walk-off KO of Assuncao), Aljamain Sterling (88-second sub of Sandhagen), and Sean O'Malley (first-round KO of Eddie Wineland). The main event, despite being one-sided, was not bonus-worthy on either side.
Did Cody Garbrandt's KO of Assuncao really come with one second left?
Officially, the KO was scored at 4:59 of round two — one second before the horn. Garbrandt landed a right-hand counter that flattened Assuncao, then followed with a single, unnecessary punch on the ground before referee Mark Smith waved it off. It was Garbrandt's first UFC win in nearly two years and one of the highlight KOs of 2020.
How does Nunes's UFC 250 win fit into her championship resume?
It was the second of her three successful featherweight title defenses and part of a 12-fight UFC win streak from September 2014 to December 2021 that included finish wins over Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, Cris Cyborg, and Germaine de Randamie. UFC 250 was the only one of those wins by decision — every other came inside the distance. She would lose only once in her UFC tenure (to Julianna Peña at UFC 269 in December 2021) before retiring as a two-division champion in 2023.
Did Aljamain Sterling eventually win the bantamweight title?
Yes — controversially. Sterling fought Petr Yan for the vacant title at UFC 259 in March 2021. He was winning the fight on points when Yan landed an illegal knee in round four; Sterling was unable to continue, and the championship was awarded to him by disqualification — the first UFC title ever changed by DQ. He won the rematch by split decision at UFC 273 in April 2022, defended again at UFC 280, and lost the title to Sean O'Malley by KO at UFC 292 in August 2023.
How does UFC 250 compare to UFC 249?
Both were closed-door COVID-era cards. UFC 249 (May 9, in Jacksonville) drew an estimated 700,000 PPV buys with three title-impact bouts and the Cejudo retirement. UFC 250 (June 6, at the APEX) drew an estimated 350,000 — half the number — with a more one-sided main event. The drop-off reflected both the absence of a Tony Ferguson-level main event and the natural softening of post-shutdown audience curiosity.
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