Raquel Pennington won the vacant women’s bantamweight title at UFC 297 against Mayra Bueno Silva, despite facing illness on the day of the fight, and now hopes to defend her title against Julianna Peña.
Raquel Pennington had more than just Mayra Bueno Silva to contend with on Saturday. She was in the co-main event of UFC 297, where she won a hard-fought unanimous decision and claimed the vacant women’s bantamweight title. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
Pennington’s performance raised eyebrows, as she chose to engage in lengthy clinch battles with Bueno Silva. This decision earned her boos from the crowd, and even some stern words from UFC CEO Dana White and her own corner.
She admitted she could’ve listened to her coaches more. But there was more to the story. Pennington had a particularly tough day preparing for her title fight.
“Today was actually a very interesting day for me,” she confessed at the UFC 297 post-fight press conference. She shared her morning struggles, saying, “I woke up this morning and literally questioned everything. I woke up so sick.”
She spent the morning in deep conversations with her coaches and sports psychologist, Tiesha. She had to dig deep, find the champion mindset, because she admitted, “as a person, I did break this morning.”
But she pulled herself together. “I saw how beautiful my little girl looked and I was like, ‘I’m not quitting. I’m going out there and I’m doing this. It doesn’t matter how I feel.'”
Despite feeling unwell, Pennington still delivered one of her best performances in recent years. She won four of five rounds on all three judges’ scorecards and even scored a 10-8 in one of them.
Now, over a decade after her UFC debut on season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter, Pennington is finally a champion. She’s looking forward to her first defense, hoping to finally settle her longstanding feud with fellow Ultimate Fighter cast mate, Julianna Peña.
“That’s the fight that makes sense,” Pennington said. “I honestly thought that, for the world title, it would be me and Julianna, but she’s still injured.” She added, “I’ve been waiting for that fight for 13 years, whether the title is on the line or not.”
Peña, a former bantamweight champion herself, was originally targeted for the vacant title fight. But due to injury, “The Venezuelan Vixen” couldn’t compete. Peña hopes to return to action this summer, and Pennington seems open to that timeline.
Once that old score is settled, it’s on to the next. “I do want to stay active,” Pennington said. “I’m getting older and stuff, too. We have our family now. We want to continue to build on that. It’s just kind of finding balance between everything. I would like to defend the title a couple of times, and then that’s a wrap for me.”