Las Vegas — Strawweight Tecia Pennington is clearly her own worst critic.
Following a three-round decision win against Luana Pinheiro to kick off Saturday’s UFC Vegas 106 card, Pennington (15-7) appeared a bit down on her performance, happy that she’d come away with the victory, but far from satisfied with the display as a whole.
“I could have done better, but you know, a win’s a win,” Pennington said after the fight, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press. “I just feel like, I’m don’t know, I’m having a hard time just letting go the entire time. Because I have really great hands, really great kickboxing, I have really great defense.”
Pennington felt she waited to long too get going in the opening round, though she admitted there were some great moments in it nonetheless. “There’s some really great moments, and you can always do better. And it’s like, I want to do a breakout performance, and then I don’t do everything I wanted to do or fight as much as I wanted to do. I’m happy that I won of course, but you can always do better.”
With Pinheiro ranked #15, Tecia Pennington, two spots ahead, is hoping she moves forward regardless. The UFC’s official rankings, under constant scrutiny of late, appear to have her attention.
“I’m going to say, I hope it moves me up. I got another win, and I’m ranked behind Angela Hill and I beat her twice in the UFC. So I’ve at least got to punch in front of her, even though this girl’s number 15,” stated Pennington. “Ideally I’d like to be in the top 10. Journalists, whoever’s out there doing it, if it’s you guys, I don’t know. Look at my wins, look at my losses, even my losses, I’ve lost split decisions to champions. I’m the only fighter in this division, I’m 99% sure, that’s fought every single champion. Fair enough, I might have lost to most of them but I’ve beaten two champions. I beat Carla [Esparza], I beat Rose [Namajunas] before, and when I did lose, I’ve never been beaten up. Nobody’s beaten me up. Weili [Zhang] didn’t beat me up, Joanna [Jedrzejczyk] didn’t beat me up. Granted I lost points and stuff like that, I’ve never been finished in a fight. So my durability, I’m a veteran, I have some great wins under my belt.”
The UFC’s rankings are in fact comprised by journalists, though the question of who is on the rankings panel and how up-to-date it is has been floated. UFC President and CEO Dana White has suggested an AI-backed rankings system, though what that would look like is anyone’s guess, since current “AI” does not represent actual “artificial intelligence” but rather just complex, human-trained algorithms.
In any case, Pennington is gunning for the top 10. “I belong in the top 10. So journalists if you’re listening, please put me in the top 10 or very close to it. Because that determines the next fight I’m going to get. And unfortunately if I’m not ranked higher, I’m not going to get that high fight that I want to. And I’m 35, I’m not getting younger. I want to finish this sport with great wins, I want to be one of the best in the world, I know I’m one of the best in the world. I want to be one of the best of the world in the top 5 again.”
At her best, Pennington was ranked #4 in the UFC. She’s now 11 years into her UFC career, and fighting with her daughter, and late father, who passed away months ago, in mind. “I’m going to be back there. I’ve got that mama strength and will in me now, and I fight with just more of my heart now.”
Watch Tecia Pennington’s full UFC Vegas 106 post-fight media appearance above.
