Las Vegas — UFC bantamweight champ Raquel Pennington took the long road to title glory, finally earning her first world championship at UFC 297 this past January.
Pennington (16-8) claimed the vacant belt by defeating Mayra Bueno Silva, and now reigns over a division in flux, with Kayla Harrison having recently arrived to the promotion, and talks of former champ Amanda Nunes returning.
“It’s wild. It’s been a crazy journey. I’m from Colorado, I’m not the champion of Colorado, I’m not the champion of the United States, but I’m actually the world champion. 14 years of hard work paying off,” Pennington exclaimed, speaking to Cageside Press. “It’s such a crazy feeling. It’s exciting. A lot of people, they sit here and when Ronda was here doing her work, she left and it was like ‘oh the division sucks.'”
“Then you had Amanda, she became a reigning champion and then now Amanda left, and it’s like ‘oh the division sucks.’ Really there’s so much talent in this division, a ton of hard-working women, but right now is my time, and I’m excited for that. I’m excited for the hype, I’m excited for the fact that Kayla’s here. I feel like Amanda truly shut down everybody’s hype train, and now here’s somebody making a lot of noise. And I have the opportunity to shut down that train, and then of course you have Julianna [Pena], where we have a history. And somehow that fight hasn’t aligned for 11 years, but here we are.”
Pennington is widely expected to fight Pena next, a fight that has been brewing since their time on The Ultimate Fighter.
“I’m extremely excited for it. Julianna is just one of those girls that, she’s going to have her own version of everything,” Pennington said on that front. “I don’t believe in bullying, I’m an ambassador against bullying. And when I went into The Ultimate Fighter, it’s a show that really takes you out of your comfort zone.”
Pennington didn’t know anyone personally going into the show, and called living with other athletes “a completely different world.” When she arrived in the TUF house, “Julianna was being bullied. Everybody knew of Juliana in the house, and the way that they treated her, I was just like, man!”
“She was on my team, so it felt okay to make a friendship. So I tried to just befriend her and do whatever, and I quickly learned that we have different personalities. She definitely got under my skin. So that’s why for me it’s just one of those fights that’s super-exciting, it’s been a long time coming. At the end of the day we’re all human beings, but I’m looking forward to punching her in the face.”
Watch our full interview with Raquel Pennington above.
