The card is headlined with women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes defending her title against Colorado’s Raquel Pennington.
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Amanda Nunes remains on top of the world in the UFC women’s bantamweight division. The win also serves as Nunes’ third consecutive title defense since winning the belt in 2016.
UFC is broadcasting the full event live via YouTube. Since then, “Rocky” has been recovering from a career-threatening injury following a grizzly hunting accident.
Despite being significantly down on the scorecards, Pennington showed no urgency and stuck to the strategy which saw her opponent build up an unassailable led on the judges’ scorecards. Jacare got some success in the opening round, with Gastelum getting back into the fight in the second. Pennington is engaged to UFC strawweight Tecia Torres, who used to train with Nunes in South Florida.
Pennington took her corner’s advice and came out in the fifth round looking to attack but Nunes superiority continued. But, the fight still went on with the acceptance of Amanda Cooper. The two friends were scheduled to clash in December, but Pennington broke her left leg in an ATV crash. Pennington again shot for a takedown, and once again was stuffed. When the American fighter approached Nunes, the Brazilian countered and took the fight to the octagon floor where she unleashed a barrage of “ground-and-pound” strikes covering the canvas in blood. She has won four consecutive bouts, with a submission victory over Jessica Andrade starting that run back at UFC 191.
Another low leg kick and Pennington’s left calf is visibly being tenderized here.
Nunes and Pennington traded to open the fourth.
Back to the center of the cage and Nunes lands a front kick to the body. Bantamweight title challenger Raquel Pennington gets some physical therapy after her long trip to Brazil. After a lull in the action, the referee called for them to stand. The round ended with Pennington eating another big knee.
Nunes (16-4) hurt Pennington with leg kicks and busted her nose with a knee, en route to a TKO finish.
Nunes took her opponent down and landed an elbow.
After a pair of failed attempts while backed against the cage, Pennington scored a takedown of Nunes late in the second round to slow the steady onslaught from the champion.
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With her nose clearly shattered, Penning slowly made her way back out for the final round. The two both were displaying surprisingly good cardio considering what stage of the fight they were in at that point.
