Mayra Bueno Silva is excited for her opportunity to become an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion, but doesn’t necessarily have high expectations for the fight itself.
The worldwide leader in mixed martial arts (MMA) has its first pay-per-view (PPV) event of 2024 teed up for a return to Toronto, Ontario, Canada with UFC 297 in two weekends (Sat., Jan. 20, 2024). Atop the card will be two big title fights as the main event features the Middleweight champion, Sean Strickland vs. top-ranked challenger, Dricus Du Plessis, and the vacant women’s Bantamweight title tilt, pitting Bueno Silva against Raquel Pennington directly prior.
Despite both contenders having put together the best stretches of momentum in their division at present, the Brazilian finisher admits to her beliefs that the fight is not a good one.
“I will dominate Raquel Pennington,” Bueno Silva told MiddleEasy. “I promise to give a big show. In the paper, it’s no good fight because nobody wants to watch this fight, I know. This fight on the paper is no good. But I promise I will give a big show for everybody.
“Everybody [will] go home and think about, ‘Hey, this girl, Mayra Bueno Silva, is the chosen one,’” she concluded.
The biggest surprise of the pairing between Bueno Silva vs. Pennington was the exclusion of former champion, Julianna Pena, who had seemingly been promised a spot on either side of the match up. However, Pena is still dealing with an injury, according to her, and will fight the winner. Bueno Silva, of course, expects that to be her, and is glad to still be in this spot after her mix-up with the now-departed United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
“Raquel is more tough than Julianna,” Bueno Silva said. “Julianna, easy money.
“I think she’s tough and she has good [boxing] but she don’t have good jiu-jitsu and good takedowns,” she concluded. “I think I’m better than her at everything, but she’s tough, it’s hard to hurt her. I will knock her out. I believe this 100 percent.”
Bueno Silva, 32, has gone unbeaten in her four fights since moving back up to Bantamweight in UFC in April 2022. The veteran, Pennington, on the other hand, has won five straight since a second-career loss to Holly Holm in January 2020.