By the time Raquel Pennington was finished at UFC 297, Mayra Bueno Silva could barely get off the mat, and that’s why the American is the new women’s bantamweight champion.
Pennington defeated Bueno Silva by unanimous decision in Toronto to capture the bantamweight belt vacated by Amanda Nunes at UFC 289 in June. The title is an award for the bantamweight division’s greatest veteran, having a record 18 fights at 135 pounds.
It was a strong return to the spotlight for Pennington, who lost to Nunes as a challenger in 2018 and dropped two of her next three bouts before going on a six-fight win streak. However, it is not as if Saturday was the most watched title fight.
Pennington said during the broadcast, “I expected to come here and do a lot of things, feel a lot of different things, but a fight is a fight. Myra was tough.” “It’s been five years. I had to climb mountains to get back here.”
Bueno Silva started the fight as the aggressor, pinning Pennington for several minutes in a high-energy round 1. The fight reversed course in the second round, when Pennington stunned Bueno Silva with a combo and ultimately remained in control of the frame.
Bueno Silva really started to feel tired in the third round and it got worse from there. He tried to kill time, but it didn’t help him. Pennington had a chance to finish the fight with an arm triangle in the fifth and it looked like Bueno Silva was going to tap until he was able to find enough room to escape.
The fight ended again, with Bueno Silva on his back and booed loudly by the Scotiabank Arena crowd. all three judges Scored in the final four rounds for Pennington.,
“It got to the point where it wasn’t pretty and he said, ‘I don’t even care if you get scolded here. Do your job and get it done,’ and that’s exactly what I did,” Pennington said. “It’s not as easy as everyone might think.”
Next up for Pennington is almost certainly Julianna Pena, who defeated Nunes for the belt and then lost the rematch. Pena, who was in attendance on Saturday, missed the chance for a trilogy with Nunes due to Nunes’ retirement and will now face a fellow UFC veteran to reclaim the belt.
Pennington looked ready for a fight.
Pennington said, “Juliana do your best and sign on the dotted line. It’s been 10 years since I’ve been waiting for that fight.”
