Amanda Nunes doesn’t believe Raquel Pennington’s corner had their fighter’s best interest in mind. Last night (May 12), Nunes defended her Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight title against “Rocky.R…
Amanda Nunes doesn’t believe Raquel Pennington’s corner had their fighter’s best interest in mind. Last night (May 12), Nunes defended her Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight title against “Rocky.” The title fight headlined UFC 224 inside Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This was “The Lioness’” third title defense. While Pennington found some success in the second […]
Although UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes scored a third straight title defense in dominant fashion over Raquel Pennington (watch full highlights here) in the main event of last night’s (Sat., May 12, 2018) UFC 224 from Rio, it didn’t come without some controversy.
That controversy stemmed from the fact that Pennington had told her corner that she was ‘done’ and didn’t want to fight anymore after it appeared Nunes had broken her nose with some big knees in the fourth round of a sustained beating from the champion.
She was instead sent out to get finished in one of the bloodier scenes witnessed in recent memory following her cornerman Jason Kutz’s refusal to let her stop:
“No, no, no, girl,” Kutz said. “Don’t go out like this. C’mon, girl. I know it hurts. Let’s power through this. Let’s power through this and believe. Change your mindset. Let’s throw everything we got. We’ll recover later. Throw everything we got.”
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At the UFC 224 post-fight press conference, Nunes addressed the situation after only finding out about it when her partner Nina Ansaroff told her about the fight. Speaking through an interpreter via MMAjunkie, Nunes gave her view that after Pennington was sent to the hospital, it could have been avoided as her cornerman had failed her:
“It’s sad. (My girlfriend) Nina (Ansaroff) told me. I didn’t even know. Nina told me in the locker room. It’s sad because you could avoid something. She went to the hospital. It might be a bad injury for her to go to the hospital. I already asked Nina to text her – if she needs anything I’m here. It’s sad.
“If she didn’t have the right conditioning to fight then the coach should have thrown in the towel for sure. I think my coach wouldn’t let me go through that. It’s sad. Everyone must be saying a lot of bad things about him on social media, but I really think she needs to surround herself with people who want the best for her so she can really evolve for her next fights. Unfortunately, tonight (the cornerman) failed.”
Conditioning certainly may have been an issue for Pennington after a year-and-a-half off and three surgeries, yet it seemed like the never-ending beatdown from Nunes, including the broken nose, was the reason Pennington was ready to quit.
If she was admittedly at that point, her corner should have stopped the fight, a view many have taken online and one that Nunes fully believes herself. To the champ, the relationship with a fighter and cornerman is a friendship where one has to look for the other’s safety, so she hoped Pennington would be able to surround herself with people who have her best interests in mind going forward:
“He should have listened to her at that moment,” Nunes said. “It’s important to have that friendship with your coach and for the coach to understand the athlete. I think that’s why I bond so well with my coaches and it’s working out. I hope that right now, going forward, she can be with people that really understand. People that are with her 100 percent.”
Following three surgeries and a layoff that spanned 18 months, Pennington returned for the tough challenge of fighting the most dominant woman in her weight class, and even though she held her own, the nonstop attack of Nunes was clearly too much for “Rocky” to handle.
That became apparent in the fourth round when Nunes began to land a torrent of knees that opened Pennington up and broke her nose after battering her leg with low kicks early in the bout. The damage was so great that Pennington actually told her corner that she ‘was done’ in between the fourth and fifth rounds in a video via BT Sport UFC:
— #UFCChile: Maia vs. Usman on BT Sport (@btsportufc) May 13, 2018
Pennington then appeared to argue with her team for a second before listening to their words. However, Pennington’s cornerman Jason Kutz wasn’t having it, urging her to fight on (via MMAjunkie):
“No, no, no, girl,” Kutz said. “Don’t go out like this. C’mon, girl. I know it hurts. Let’s power through this. Let’s power through this and believe. Change your mindset. Let’s throw everything we got. We’ll recover later. Throw everything we got.”
Pennington ultimately went out for the fifth round, absorbing a ton of unnecessary damage when Nunes destroyed her nose to end the fight with the challenger in a bloody mess. Her cornerman instantly received much criticism for his decision to not listen to her wish to stop competing and taking more damage.
What did you think? Should Pennington’s cornerman have stopped the fight right when she asked him?
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes secured her third title defense by battering Raquel Pennington in a fifth-round TKO stoppage in the main event of last night’s (Sat., May 12, 2018) UFC 224 from Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Pennington certainly had her moments with a few crisp strikes and a strong takedown, yet the advantage of the champion was clear from the outset when she dropped ‘Rocky’ with the very first strike of the bout, a low leg kick. ‘The Lioness’ maintained a nonstop pace of relentless pressure from there, pushing Pennington against the fence with a rapid, athletic arsenal of low kicks, punches, and knees.
Nunes appeared well on her way to winning every round of the five-round title affair, but she ultimately ended it before that when she took Pennington to the ground and opened up her already badly broken nose with an elbow, resulting in a brutal TKO and a river of blood perhaps unnecessarily flowing from the challenger.
The manner of the finish perhaps could have been avoided as Pennington said she was ‘done’ in between the fourth and fifth rounds, to which her corner urged to fight on, but that’s a different story to discuss in the aftermath of the action-packed UFC 224.
For now, watch the highlights of Nunes’ latest impressive victory right here:
In the co-main event of last night’s (Sat. May 12, 2018) UFC 224 pay-per-view (PPV), top-ranked UFC middleweights Kelvin Gastelum and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza went to war.
Gastelum came into the fight fresh off a first-round knockout victory over former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping in Shanghai this past November. Prior to that, he suffered his first loss after a three-fight win streak to Chris Weidman via third-round submission the previous July. A win over Souza after downing a recent 185-pound champion in Bisping would’ve put the former Ultimate Fighter (TUF) winner right in championship contention.
Souza entered the Octagon after knocking out Derek Brunson in stunning fashion in the first round of their meeting this past January. Prior to that he also had a win streak snapped, this one by current 185-pound titleholder Robert Whittaker (before he became champion).
If Souza had been able to stop the hype train of Gastelum, fresh off his knockout win over Bisping, he himself could be looking at a shot at middleweight gold.
Early on Gastelum was able to land some nice shots before getting taken down and maneuvered on the ground. Souza came close to getting an armbar to end the round, but Gastelum was able to escape just as the bell rang.
For the remaining two rounds, a striking battle mostly consumed the bout, with the exception of a few moments of Souza getting it to the ground. Mostly, Gastelum got the better of the striking exchanges, and the judges saw it that way as well after awarding him the split decision win.
You can check out the full fight video highlights here below:
Maybe it didn’t hold the obvious, block-busting appeal of other UFC pay-per-views. But for those who took the time for a second look, UFC 224 contained plenty of storylines…
Maybe it didn’t hold the obvious, block-busting appeal of other UFC pay-per-views. But for those who took the time for a second look, UFC 224 contained plenty of storylines…
