Raquel Pennington isn’t stunned in the least about Amanda Nunes teasing a potential return to the octagon.
Following Pennington dropping the bantamweight title via a controversial split decision to Julianna Peña at UFC 307, the now two-time titleholder ignored fellow event winner Kayla Harrison, and went right for a trilogy fight with Nunes. The third meeting was booked for UFC 289 in June 2023, but a Peña injury led to Nunes defending the belt against Irene Aldana in the main event — which Nunes successfully did via lopsided decision before announcing her retirement.
Nunes since released a comment on social media, tagging UFC CEO Dana White, asking him to call her. If “The Lioness” returns to the fold, Pennington will be cheering her on.
“Obviously Amanda and I have fought but we’ve known each other since Invicta,” Pennington told MMA Fighting. “I’ve always supported her career, she’s supported mine, my family supports her and stuff, and then her and Nina [Nunes] are two of Tecia [Pennington’s] closest friends. So every time we go to Florida, we’re down at their house. I mean, we stay with them half of the time and the kids get to play together, and whatnot.
“They’re competitors — both of them — and so it’s not just even Amanda. I feel like it’s something that everybody’s known for a long time, and as an athlete, like, when do you know the right time to walk away? This is a conversation that I actually have with other athletes and they’re like, ‘I don’t know, I guess we’ll figure it out,’ and you see a lot of these athletes, they’re like, ‘OK, like we’re good.’ And they’re in that phase in their life and then all of a sudden, it’s like, they’re natural born competitors.
“I’ve had conversations with both Amanda and Nina, and they’re just like, ‘Yeah, we’re done for now’ type thing, and ‘we might be coming back,’ and of course, Amanda, she’s been very successful with everything. She’s known as the GOAT and she’s done amazing things, and she loves to shut everybody’s mouth. And so you had Kayla come in and she’s made the comment about the fact that she would love to just shut Kayla up, [and] we all know how she feels about Julianna, and she said that if Julianna ever got the belt back, she was gonna come back and beat the brakes off of her. I feel like I can’t speak for Amanda, but I’m not surprised with her video at all just knowing her as a person, knowing her as a competitor and I’m sure the world would absolutely love to see her back.”
Nunes would be a welcome addition to the current bantamweight slate, which is certainly more above the radar following Nunes’ retirement. With Pennington finding her stride, along with Peña, Harrison, Vieira, and more in the mix, one of the promotion’s most shallow divisions in terms of numbers has gotten a shot of depth and excitement.
Pennington sees it too, but believes recognition has been deserving for some time. Now the dominoes are falling in the right place for the division to shine.
“It’s kind of like when Ronda left, you [had’ Amanda who [had] started a very successful run for herself, but the world was just absolutely hating on her,” Pennington sait. “It was just like, ‘Oh, Ronda left, like, this division sucks.’ And then all of a sudden, Amanda just completely took over and it’s like, ‘OK, Amanda left, this division sucks.’ The world has a hard time when it comes to change initially, but the women’s bantamweight division actually has a lot of talent.
“That’s why even with the matchup between Ketlen and Kayla, like, I thought it was extremely disrespectful to not give Ketlen any credit. She’s a very talented fighter. She packs a punch. It’s a different ball game. Women are in this division for a reason, and so it’s really interesting to see. It was really cool that they put some of the top fights on the card, so that way the world can actually see a lot more talent that’s there.
“There’s talent here and I feel like the division definitely needs a lot more credit.”
