Raquel Pennington didn’t appreciate the thought of being overlooked.
That appeared to be the case during talks of Amanda Nunes vs. Cris Cyborg. Pennington was penciled in for a title shot against Nunes for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight gold, but was injured in an ATV accident.
Plans seemed to be set for her title bout to move forward after recovery, but some talks surfaced. UFC president Dana White said he liked the idea of Cyborg vs. Nunes. The two champions began talking about their desires to make the fight possible. This lit a fire under Pennington.
Pennington will indeed receive her shot at gold at UFC 224. During a press conference in Rio, Pennington talked about her concern over prior ramblings (via MMAJunkie.com):
“I do have to admit: When we were in negotiations for the fight with me and Amanda, and I felt we should have previously had our contract … Like, the week prior to Cyborg last fighting. Neither one of us received our contract, but then it was like, all of a sudden we went into talks that the fight was going to be scrapped. That, I did take action.”
She went as far as to communicate with UFC officials on what the deal was.
“I took screenshots of Dana’s comments being said and everything else, and I sent them to the matchmakers and everybody in the UFC and I was like, ‘Can somebody tell me what’s happening? Because this is a bunch of bull(expletive), honestly.’ I feel like it was something that – we were in talks, we should have had our contract, things should have been signed, it shouldn’t have been something to wait for Cyborg to fight, then we’ll see what’s going to happen.”
Do you think Raquel Pennington can become the new UFC women’s bantamweight champion?
