UFC 224 Poster Released

UFC 224 will be held on May 12, 2018, at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The card will be headlined by a bantamweight title fight between Brazilian champion Amanda “Lioness” Nunes and Raquel “Rocky” Pennington. The…

UFC 224 will be held on May 12, 2018, at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The card will be headlined by a bantamweight title fight between Brazilian champion Amanda “Lioness” Nunes and Raquel “Rocky” Pennington. The card is stacked with Brazilian MMA legends including former UFC light-heavyweight champions Victor Belfort and Lyoto Machida, and […]

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UFC 223: Raquel Pennington Talks Amanda Nunes & More at Media Scrum

UFC 223 is ongoing and while Raquel Pennington isn’t on the card, she is inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. Pennington spoke with the media to talk about her upcoming title bout with Amanda Nunes at UFC 224 on May 12. MMA News is on the …

UFC 223 is ongoing and while Raquel Pennington isn’t on the card, she is inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. Pennington spoke with the media to talk about her upcoming title bout with Amanda Nunes at UFC 224 on May 12. MMA News is on the scene and has uploaded footage of the scrum.

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Amanda Nunes Unfazed by Past Training Link Ahead of UFC 224

Amanda Nunes isn’t worried about a training link with Raquel Pennington before their title clash. Nunes will put her Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight title on the line against Pennington at UFC 224. The bout will be…

Amanda Nunes isn’t worried about a training link with Raquel Pennington before their title clash. Nunes will put her Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight title on the line against Pennington at UFC 224. The bout will be held inside the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It’ll be “The Lioness’” third title defense. There’s […]

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Raquel Pennington Says Cyborg-Nunes Talks Were ‘Bullsh*t’

Raquel Pennington didn’t appreciate the thought of being overlooked. That appeared to be the case during talks of Amanda Nunes vs. Cris Cyborg. Pennington was penciled in for a title shot against Nunes for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)…

Raquel Pennington didn’t appreciate the thought of being overlooked. That appeared to be the case during talks of Amanda Nunes vs. Cris Cyborg. Pennington was penciled in for a title shot against Nunes for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight gold, but was injured in an ATV accident. Plans seemed to be set for […]

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Mackenzie Dern’s Next Fight Set For UFC 224

Mackenzie Dern isn’t wasting any time returning to the Octagon. The hyped 6-0 strawweight prospect just made her UFC debut with a hard-fought split decision win over Ashley Yoder at March 3’s UFC 222, and after calling for a fight at UFC 224 in the momenta afterward, she’s headed back to the origins of her championship-winning […]

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Mackenzie Dern isn’t wasting any time returning to the Octagon.

The hyped 6-0 strawweight prospect just made her UFC debut with a hard-fought split decision win over Ashley Yoder at March 3’s UFC 222, and after calling for a fight at UFC 224 in the momenta afterward, she’s headed back to the origins of her championship-winning Brazilian jiu-jitsu pedigree.

News broke from MMA Brasil Wednesday that Dern will make a fast turnaround to face former The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 20 finalist Amanda Bobby Cooper at May 24’s UFC 224 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Dern, the daughter of BJJ great Wellington “Megaton” Dias, is widely regarded as one of the finest female submission artists in the world, owning a win over feared champion Gabi Garcia. She’s submitted her foe in three of her six total mixed martial arts bouts, and the 24-year-old Brazilian-American would appear to have a match-up tailor-made for her skillset in Cooper, who has lost all three of her defeats by submission.

But the 3-3 Cooper did make it to the TUF 20 finals, and also picked up a one-sided TKO win over Angela Magana in her last bout to regain some much-needed momentum after tapping out to a Cynthia Calvillo rear-naked choke in her prior fight at UFC 209 in 2016.

Dern did show some wild inexperience on the feet against Yoder. She was prone to wild, lunging punches that left her chin incredibly open, and indeed Yoder dropped her with a big punch at one point. Yet there’s little doubt Cooper will be in imminent danger if the fight hits the mat.

‘ABC’ doesn’t seem to be phased by that fact, however, posting that she’s been training for a long while to beat Dern and would derail her hype train:

UFC 224 features a women’s bantamweight championship bout between hometown fan favorite Amanda Nunes and challenger Raquel Pennington.

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Amanda Nunes Reveals Why She’s Fighting Raquel Pennington Instead Of Cris Cyborg

A fight between UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes has been postponed. In the past, Cyborg has explained her position on the possible fight with Nunes. As for the main reason, it’s due to her not wanting to fight a fellow Brazilian. Even though this would be the […]

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A fight between UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes has been postponed.

In the past, Cyborg has explained her position on the possible fight with Nunes. As for the main reason, it’s due to her not wanting to fight a fellow Brazilian.

Even though this would be the most difficult task of her career, Nunes can’t wait to fight the featherweight champion not because it’s personal but rather because she wants to broke Cyborg’s 20-fight unbeaten streak.

However, this fight will have to wait. The UFC has already announced that the women’s bantamweight champion would make her next title defense against rising contender Raquel Pennington at the upcoming UFC 224 pay-per-view event.

Nunes recently appeared on the UFC Unfiltered podcast (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting) to talk about her next title defense as well as why she took this fight instead of the super fight with  Cyborg.

“When I texted Dana White that I wanted the fight, I didn’t have nobody in my division,” said Nunes. “I didn’t even know if I was gonna fight soon. I was concerned with waiting years because I’ve been in that position before, waiting so long for a fight, I don’t want to do it again and stay waiting, waiting, waiting.

“But now, we have Rocky [Pennington] and we have the Brazilian, Ketlen [Vieira] and I feel like my division is starting to grow. If you pay attention, the division’s gonna be awesome and now I have two. I have Rocky and I have Ketlen. Rocky is my next step and I want to see Ketlen after, for sure.”

“I think she’s deserving, after this fight against Rocky,” said Nunes. “She beat the girl that beat me. I think she’s ready and I’m excited to fight her.”

The UFC 224 pay-per-view event is slated to go down on Saturday, May 12 in Rio de Janeiro. The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.

Cyborg has fought as recently as this month. As seen in the main event of the UFC 222 event on pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cyborg successfully retained her title against newcomer Yana Kunitskaya by picking up a TKO win in the first round.

“There’s gonna be a lot of things involved in that,” said the champion. “Having the contract for her, for me, it has to make sense for both of us so we can do this. It’s nothing personal against Cyborg. When you become a professional fighter, you want to become the best, you want to beat the best.

“It’s nothing personal but I feel like there’s a lot of things involved in that and I don’t want to wait for that. I want to keep fighting, I don’t want to wait to negotiate. Right now my division has a new contender and I’m excited for that. Whatever happens after that, we’ll see.”

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