Amanda Nunes calls it a career with a strong message for her fellow Brazilians

Amanda Nunes stepped off a plane in New Jersey as a young 20-something, a dream of one day winning championships and becoming recognized as the greatest mixed martial arts fighter of all time.

It was a long, and often arduous, journey to the top. When she first started training in the U.S., a box was set up in the gym for her teammates to drop money into for her. She had nothing and couldn’t have eaten, or afforded the other basic necessities of life, without the generosity of her teammates.

She retired Saturday after fulfilling all her goals. She routed Irene Aldana in their fight for Nunes’ bantamweight title in the main event of UFC 289 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia. She won by scores of 50-44 twice and 50-43. Yahoo Sports had it 50-43 for Nunes.

She was near-perfect Saturday. She had too much for Aldana in every aspect of the game. Nunes set a divisional record for most takedowns in a career, surpassing Sara McMann. Her punches battered Aldana’s face and left it bruised and swollen. Aldana ate knees and leg kicks that left her walking gingerly. Her jiu-jitsu looked as good as it ever has.

When her work was done, she announced her retirement, going out on top as the women’s bantamweight champion, the women’s featherweight champion, and the greatest female MMA fighter ever. She laid both of her belts in the center of the Octagon and then, in the traditional way of retiring in MMA, had her gloves cut and placed them on the floor.

She went to her knees, kissed her belts and then placed her head on the floor.

When she arose, she was beaming and after doing a joyous post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier, bounced around the Octagon taking pictures, pouring beer on herself and others and simply celebrating one of the best careers ever.

“Tonight is the perfect time to retire and to live happy forever,” Nunes said

She later encouraged other Brazilian fighters “to get their s*** together,” and win a championship. Afterward, she mentioned that Charles Oliveira is one who could do it.

Oliveira was brilliant in scoring a first-round TKO of Beneil Dariush that likely earned him another shot at lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. The finish of Dariush, which began with a head kick and ended with some hard ground and pound, was his 20th, a UFC record.

After beating Dariush, Oliveira climbed atop the cage and saluted the fans, who had supported him whole-heartedly all week and were in a full-throated roar when he ended it. As Oliveira soaked the cheers, he buried his face in his hands.

He was 0-4 in four previous trips to Canada, but finally busted that jinx Saturday. And it clearly meant a great deal to him.

“Everyone was standing, applauding and cheering and it was an amazing feeling,” he said. “It was an amazing feeling. I felt like I was in the community in Brazil. I felt like I was back at home and among Brazilians and not miles and miles away from home.”

He said that after reflecting upon his previous losses in Canada and seeing the crowd react to his win, he couldn’t hold back.

UFC president Dana White raved about both Brazilians, and said Oliveira will get his chance to avenge his loss to Makhachev. Oliveira didn’t want to engage on that and just preferred to relax before thinking of fighting again.

Nunes, though, did. She named Oliveira almost immediately when asked about which Brazilians could earn a title.

Oliveira, like Nunes, is classy and humble despite being one of the greatest fighters ever. He could do a lot worse, though, than paying attention to how Nunes ran her career.

She said she knew when she signed the contract to fight Aldana it would be her last, but she also said that even at 35 and headed into her final bout, she was still growing and improving as a fighter.

Nunes said that sometimes when she and her wife, Nina, are watching television, she’ll get up, get into a fighting stance and share with Nina a strategy or a move she’d been thinking of trying.

She said she’s exhausted because she put so much of herself into her fights, and that there’s little chance she’ll return.

“Even when I sleep, I work,” she said, pointing out she dreams about fighting.

She laughed and said she looks forward to not having to cut weight ever again.

“It hurts soooo bad,” she said, almost lyrically.

Her career was filled with highlights and mostly good cheer. The only time she was in a poor mood was after her 48-second KO of Rousey. Rousey was so big that she was all that anyone talked about at the time, even though Nunes was the champion.

After she decimated Rousey and made her appear amateurish — which she did to so many elite women — Nunes had harsh words for the media before breaking down in tears.

She named the Rousey win, as well as her KOs of Holly Holm and Cris “Cyborg” Justino as among her greatest memories from the sport she so thoroughly dominated.

She’s off to the history books now and maybe it will be Oliveira who responds to her challenge to her countrymen to rise up.

He’s ready for the challenge, but he, and everyone else, has an extraordinary bar to climb to get anywhere near the standard Nunes so exquisitely set.