Raquel Pennington put forth a valiant effort against bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes in the main event of last night’s (May 12, 2018) UFC 224 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her toughness was on full display, but in the end, she simply had little to offer the Brazilian titleholder.
In fact, the fight was so one-sided that prior to the fifth round, Pennington told her corner she had had enough. However, her corner elected not to throw in the towel and Pennington came out for the final frame where she was ultimately finished.
Following the fight, Pennington’s corner has received a tremendous amount of criticism, but UFC strawweight Tecia Torres, Pennington’s longtime partner, said that her and “Rocky” agree with how the corner handled the situation:
“Both us and our coaches agree with the decision made to go into the 5th round,” Torres wrote on Instagram. “We know Raquel more than anyone else and know if we let her give up on herself going into the last round she would have always regretted it. She fought with heart and grit until the end.”
Miesha Tate has spoken up in defense of the Raquel Pennington UFC 224 corner. The main event saw Raquel Pennington challenge Amanda Nunes for the UFC bantamweight championship. The first two rounds were competitive, but Nunes began to pull away in the …
Miesha Tate has spoken up in defense of the Raquel Pennington UFC 224 corner. The main event saw Raquel Pennington challenge Amanda Nunes for the UFC bantamweight championship. The first two rounds were competitive, but Nunes began to pull away in the second half of the fight. At the end of the fourth round, Pennington […]
The corner of Raquel Pennington failed its fighter in the main event of UFC 224, which took place last night at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the end of the fourth round, after Pennington was already down 40-36 on the judges scorecards t…
The corner of Raquel Pennington failed its fighter in the main event of UFC 224, which took place last night at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the end of the fourth round, after Pennington was already down 40-36 on the judges scorecards to UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, Pennington said to […]
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.”
Jason Silva for USA TODAY Sports
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?
@raquel_pennington
