UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes will defend her belt against Raquel Pennington at UFC 224, Combate reported on Friday. Nunes (15-4) will be defending her belt for the first time on her home soil in Rio de Janeiro on May 12. The Brazilian is on a six-fight win streak, having violently taken the title […]
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes will defend her belt against Raquel Pennington at UFC 224, Combate reported on Friday.
Nunes (15-4) will be defending her belt for the first time on her home soil in Rio de Janeiro on May 12. The Brazilian is on a six-fight win streak, having violently taken the title from Miesha Tate before TKOing former champion Ronda Rousey in less than a minute, and will look to secure her third title defense against Pennington, who herself is on an impressive four-fight win streak.
Pennington (9-5) is coming off of a nasty leg injury due to a hunting accident following her dominant victory over Tate at UFC 205 in 2016. While talks of a super fight with UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg gained steam recently, it appears as though both women will be defending their belts separately before fighting each other.
Brazilian legends Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort will throw down elsewhere on the card, as well as Jacare Souza vs. Kelvin Gastelum.
Raquel Pennington is thankful that her ATV accident didn’t end a lot worse. Yesterday (Oct. 27), Combate reported that Pennington was involved in a car accident and broke her leg as a result. The report also noted that she was set to challenge Amanda Nunes for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight title. As it […]
Raquel Pennington is thankful that her ATV accident didn’t end a lot worse. Yesterday (Oct. 27), Combate reported that Pennington was involved in a car accident and broke her leg as a result. The report also noted that she was set to challenge Amanda Nunes for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight title. As it […]
Raquel “Rocky” Pennington’s battle with injuries continue following an ATV accident in Colorado.
First reported by Combate, Pennington confirmed the news to MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani on Friday.
Pennington told MMAFighting the ATV flipped as they …
Raquel “Rocky” Pennington’s battle with injuries continue following an ATV accident in Colorado.
First reported by Combate, Pennington confirmed the news to MMAFighting.com‘s Ariel Helwani on Friday.
Pennington told MMAFighting the ATV flipped as they were turning coming back from their hunting trip. The roll cage pinned her leg, and Pennington’s cousin helped lift the ATV enough to allow her to get free.
The bantamweight contender said that her calf was “totally smashed in.”
2017 has been an eventful year for Pennington even though she had not stepped foot inside the Octagon. Pennington was set to challenge bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes in December, but now the injury puts her on the shelf indefinitely.
Her shot at UFC gold will have to wait.
Pennington had multiple surgeries including her shoulder and wrist. She finished the final of those surgeries in April and proposed to her partner, UFC strawweight contender, Tecia Torres in May. After finally getting healthy, Pennington verbally agreed to the title fight at UFC 219.
“Rocky” has won four straight in the bantamweight division with her most recent victory coming at UFC 205 last November against Miesha Tate. Of the top five ranked UFC contenders, only Pennington has a multi-fight win streak to her credit leaving no sure contender behind her to fill the role against Nunes.
If Pennington suffers no setbacks she should return to training and action in the first-half of 2018.
Top UFC women’s bantamweight contender Raquel Pennington was reportedly set for the biggest bout of her mixed martial arts (MMA) career, but apparently, that will have to wait until next year. According to a report from Combate.com, Pennington accepted a fight with current UFC women’s 135-pound champion Amanda Nunes at December 30’s UFC 219 from […]
Top UFC women’s bantamweight contender Raquel Pennington was reportedly set for the biggest bout of her mixed martial arts (MMA) career, but apparently, that will have to wait until next year.
According to a report from Combate.com, Pennington accepted a fight with current UFC women’s 135-pound champion Amanda Nunes at December 30’s UFC 219 from Las Vegas, but then broke her leg in a car accident yesterday (Wed., October 25, 2017) in Colorado. The report offered no specifics on Pennington’s injury and expected recovery time.
The bout had not been officially announced by the UFC, but Nunes and Pennington had supposedly both agreed to the bout’s date and location. Nunes was not given a replacement opponent as of this writing and will apparently wait until 2018 for her next fight.
It’s another disappointing setback for the previously surging Pennington, who has been out of action with a series of injuries since her unanimous decision win over former champion Miesha Tate at November 2016’s UFC 205, her fourth straight win in a row.
She was set to take on her biggest-ever challenge in the surging Nunes, who, despite criticism of her controversial UFC 215 decision win over rival Valentina Shevchenko, has defended the women’s bantamweight belt two times.
Clearly the most deserving contender in a contender-starved women’s bantamweight division, Pennington’s return will now extend well into 2018, leaving her out of action for going on a year-and-a-half when she returns.
Raquel Pennington wasn’t in awe of Amanda Nunes or Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 215. This past Saturday night (Sept. 9), Nunes defended her Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight title against Valentina Shevchenko. “The Lioness” retained her gold via split decision. During a recent appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour,” Pennington said the fight wasn’t […]
Raquel Pennington wasn’t in awe of Amanda Nunes or Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 215. This past Saturday night (Sept. 9), Nunes defended her Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight title against Valentina Shevchenko. “The Lioness” retained her gold via split decision. During a recent appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour,” Pennington said the fight wasn’t […]
Leading up to her return at UFC 207 over a week ago (Friday, December 30, 2016) former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey kept a very private fight camp and refused to speak to media leading up to her contest with Amanda Nunes. It was revealed that Rousey brought in No. 5-ranked UFC women’s bantamweight
Leading up to her return at UFC 207 over a week ago (Friday, December 30, 2016) former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey kept a very private fight camp and refused to speak to media leading up to her contest with Amanda Nunes.
It was revealed that Rousey brought in No. 5-ranked UFC women’s bantamweight Raquel Pennington to spar with her in preparation for the heavy-handed Nunes, as ‘Rocky’ stated during a recent interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. Pennington said she was asked by Rousey to be a part of her camp after the ceremonial weigh-ins in New York City for UFC 205, where Rousey squared off against Nunes for the first time:
“I actually talked to Ronda the night of the weigh-ins in New York [before UFC 205],” Pennington said. “I bumped into Ronda and she asked if she could contact me and bring me out for some work.
“I’ve been out to Los Angeles to see her and [teammate] Shayna Baszler before. A lot of us are friends outside the Octagon. I’m always up for challenges. Everybody brings something new to the table. It was definitely a solid experience.”
When prodded about how Rousey’s training camp went and what happened during their sparing sessions, Pennington stated that she was not allowed to say as ‘Rowdy’ made her sign a non-disclosure agreement prior to her participation in the camp:
“I can’t really talk about how sparring went or what we did,” Pennington said. “Ronda asked me to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so I did. All I can say is the fact I was able to put in work with her and that it was solid work. I can’t say too much more than that.”
Rousey would go on to lose her bout against Nunes, after taking over a year off from the sport following the first loss of her professional career to Holly Holm, being knocked out in the first round after just 48 seconds. Given the way Rousey handled her first loss much speculation has erupted as to whether or not we’ll ever see her compete in the Octagon again.
Despite suffering yet another loss, Pennington is holding out hope that ‘The Rowdy One’ won’t walk away from mixed martial arts (MMA) competition after suffering another defeat:
“I would hope so,” she said. “I would hope she wouldn’t finish her career like that. Obviously, I’d say that about anybody. Any athlete, you wouldn’t want to see them go out like that. It’d be good to see her pick her head up and get in there and get another fight in.”
Pennington is coming off of the biggest win of her career, where she defeated former 135-pound champ Miesha Tate at UFC 205 via unanimous decision to propel her into the top five of the UFC’s bantamweight rankings. Unfortunately for ‘Rocky’, however, she will be sidelined 6-9 months after having surgery to repair a torn bicep.
What are your thoughts on Rousey making Pennington sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to spar together?
Raquel “Rocky” Pennington’s battle with injuries continue following an ATV accident in Colorado.![ronda-rousey-1483649773-800[1]](http://cdn.lowkickmma.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ronda-rousey-1483649773-8001.jpg)
Despite suffering yet another loss, Pennington is holding out hope that ‘The Rowdy One’ won’t walk away from mixed martial arts (MMA) competition after suffering another defeat: