It appears former UFC bantamweight champion Julianna Pena is not the only one who believes the UFC 297 pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event between Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva, which ended in favor of “Rocky” after five rounds of tepid action last weekend in Toronto, is one of “the worst title fights of all time.”
Perhaps that explains why Amanda Nunes “still feels like a champion.”
Host Ryan Clark echoed some of Pena’s sentiments while breaking down the fight with former UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier during their “DC & RC” show on ESPN. Clark is not opposed to eliminating the division altogether if the promotion cannot muster up enough top talent to make the weight class exciting again.
Is it up to Nunes to save the division?
“The UFC is going to have to make it worth it to Amanda Nunes,” Clark said. “Here’s my statement: There’s no way after watching Raquel Pennington win that championship you can’t find a way to make it worth it for Amanda Nunes. I respect all fighters, DC. And I love the fact that they have to grind to get where they were. That was an awful fight to watch. It looked like a fight between two people who got a gameplan and as they were walking to the Octagon, they said, ‘Eff the gameplan, I’m gonna do whatever the hell I want to do.’ It seemed like two people who knew good and dang well it’s no way they should be fighting for a championship.”
Nunes, now 35, hung up the gloves after putting the hurt on Irene Aldana at UFC 289.
“If that is what’s going to be the highest level of the bantamweight division for the UFC, there should be a serious discussion of getting rid of it,” Clark continued. “We got an opportunity to see Julianna Pena not only fight well against [Nunes] but also submit her, take the belt. It built excitement for the next fight. When she has to back out of the trilogy, we see another fight where Amanda dominates. And now this is what we have because Julianna Pena could not perform. If this is what it’s gonna be DC, I’d rather you not put it on the card. That’s just my opinion. It’s not funny. I’m dead serious. I was sleepy and I had to watch that. I was trying to get to Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis.”
The good news for the women’s bantamweight division is that former PFL champion Kayla Harrison will be making her Octagon debut at UFC 300. If the Olympian can manage to defeat former 135-pound champion Holly Holm, there’s a strong chance Harrison will be in talks to challenge for the division strap later this year, depending on how quickly Pena heals up from this lingering injury.
Then again, it may not matter if UFC can resurrect this dream fight.