The struggle between Raquel Pennington and Julianna Peña is for extra than simply the UFC girls’s bantamweight title: it’s a battle for the way forward for the burden class. A minimum of, so says Peña.
This Saturday, Pennington places her girls’s bantamweight title on the road towards Peña within the co-main occasion of UFC 307. Peña is the brash, outspoken challenger finest identified for pulling off one of many greatest upsets in UFC historical past towards Amanda Nunes at UFC 269, whereas Pennington is a divisional workhorse who lastly who gained the vacant title earlier this 12 months with a win over Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 297.
They’re diametrically opposed personalities in and outdoors of the cage, and a minimum of for Peña, their variations present why she is the most suitable choice to function the face of the ladies’s bantamweight division.
“I imagine that I need this chance and that this championship belt means extra to me than it does to her,” Peña informed reporters at UFC 307 media day. “It’s very clear if you match us up, aspect by aspect. Raquel has not been a very good illustration of the ladies’s bantamweight division. She has not promoted, she has mentioned no to Embedded, she has always carried out every thing that she will be able to to keep away from being the face of girls’s MMA and never being that large face that desires to advertise and be that nice illustration of girls’s MMA.
“To me… you’re displaying me nothing, however you’re telling me every thing by not being that individual that’s letting all people know that you just’re combating. I need to be that individual. That’s my function and I can do it higher, and that’s why I imagine I’m going to have the ability to seal the deal on Saturday night time and get that gold once more.”
Peña held the bantamweight title from December 2021 till July 2022, the place she misplaced it in her rematch with Nunes at UFC 277. Peña has not competed since then, although she was rumored to be in line to struggle Pennington for the vacant belt till she received sidelined by harm.
In the meantime, Pennington is on a six-fight profitable streak over the previous 4 years with wins over a number of top-15 ranked opponents. And for her, really getting within the cage and combating is considerably extra vital for being the face of the division.
“Everyone knows that Julianna has a Grasp’s Diploma in Yapology,” Pennington mentioned in her personal media day scrum. “All she does is speak shit. She retains herself related that manner. To take a seat right here and say I turned down Embedded, how does she know something that I’m even doing. It’s fascinating. However she simply yaps and she or he talks, however on the finish of the day, I’ve at all times been me. I keep genuine to who I’m. I don’t really feel the necessity to go on the market and do all the additional shit-talking and whatnot.
“That is 14 years of laborious work. I received right here simply staying in my lane. You need to name me a horrible illustration, I didn’t see her doing any higher. She had the most important upset and thens he rotated and received her ass handed to her for 5 rounds. The place is the illustration in that? However I can let you know, for certain, I’m rattling certain right here to remain. And nonetheless.”
UFC 307 takes place this Saturday at Delta Heart in Salt Lake Metropolis.
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