Moments into the next round, Pennington got TKO’d by Nunes.
The UFC 224 main event was a pretty one-sided affair, with Amanda Nunes picking Raquel Pennington apart the entire time.
After hurting her leg early in the very first round, Pennington persevered and continued on. But after taking all that punishment, getting busted up and having a damaged leg and what looked like a crooked and broken nose, she told her conermen that she has had enough.
“I’m done. I wanna be done,” Pennington told her coaches in between rounds four and five.
Instead of stopping the fight, her coaches convinced her to continue.
“No, no, no, no,” her coach Jason Kutz responded. “Don’t go out like this. C’mon girl. I know it hurts. I know it hurts. Let’s power through this. Let’s breathe. Change your mindset. Let’s just throw everything we’ve got. Throw everything we’ve got. We’ll recover later. We’ll recover later. Throw everything we’ve got.”
“I’m done!”
Corner: “No, no, no, no.”
Raquel Pennington is finished in the fifth round just moments after telling her corner “I’m done” #UFC224 pic.twitter.com/wU52xiCaLE
— UFC 224: Nunes vs. Pennington on BT Sport (@btsportufc) May 13, 2018
Pennington, who doesn’t have a KO/TKO win since her pro debut, didn’t seem to have much of an avenue to win that fight after limping on one leg and being thoroughly beaten both on the feet and on the mat. Instead of expressing concern for the athlete’s injuries and long term health, she was just asked to “recover later” in hopes of a miracle comeback win.
She listened and pushed through, but unfortunately, she was brutally stopped just moments after walking back for that next round. Her crooked nose ended up completely smashed as Nunes pounced to get the finish, and Pennington painted the floor with blood gushing all over.
It’s the cornermen’s job to protect their fighters regardless of how tough they are, but in Mixed Martial Arts, there seems to be a serious lack of camps willing to do that and throw in the towel for their athletes. This has to change.