It’s official – women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes will fight Raquel Pennington at UFC 224 on May 12th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The fight was known to be in the works for some time, but after Cris ‘Cyborg’s’ quick win over Yana Kuniyskaya at UFC 222 there was some speculation that the promotion may look to revisit a superfight between ‘Cyborg’ and Nunes at UFC 226 in July instead.
However, it seems they’ve opted to just proceed with this match-up instead and it’ll see the 29-year-old Nunes attempting to defend her 135lb title for the third time, having already defeated Ronda Rousey and Valentina Shevchenko during her current reign.
Meanwhile, Pennington gets the nod after racking up a four-fight winning streak in the division that’s seen her defeat Jessica Andrade, Bethe Correia, Elizabeth Phillips and most recently Miesha Tate.
Thats an impressive run given that prior to that, Rocky’s’ career record was just 5-5, though most of her losses were to high-level opposition such as Holly Holm, Jessica Andrade, Cat Zingano and Leslie Smith.
With Nunes Vs Pennington now firmly installed as the headliner, UFC 224 proceeds with a card that also features Vitor Belfort’s retirement fight against Lyoto Machida and Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza taking on Kelvin Gastelum.
