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Julianna Peña was far from dazzled by what she saw from UFC 297’s co-main event.

“It was a snooze fest. I was not impressed. Not impressed with their performance, as my friend Georges St-Pierre likes to say,” Peña said Monday on The MMA Hour.

“Nobody won. The fans lost. Literally, there was no winner.”

A former UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Peña watched from home as her division crowned a new champion at UFC 297 following the retirement of Amanda Nunes. Peña was expected to be part of the vacant title bout, however injury prevented her from competing, so instead Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva faced off this past Saturday in Toronto, with Pennington ultimately winning a unanimous decision to complete her 11-year journey to the belt and become the oldest female champion in UFC history at age 35.

The fight didn’t exactly blow away the fans inside Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, however, and 10 of Pennington’s last 11 UFC wins have come in decisions. Peña was not surprised.

“So we’re on The Ultimate Fighter house, [Pennington] has to fight the semifinal fight against Jessica Rakoczy, a very decorated eight-time world champion boxer,” Peña said. “She can’t get past Jessica Rakoczy and Dana White tells her, ‘Throw your hands, throw your hands,’ and she’s like, ‘Nah, I’m not going throw my hands.’ And then when she loses the fight to Rakoczy, she says, ‘Well, Dana was trying to tell me to throw my hands and I didn’t listen to him.’ And then what did you hear? Ten years later, she’s saying, ‘Well, Dana wanted me to throw my hands more and he wanted me to press up and throw my hands.’ Some things never change, some things never change. I mean, golly, you think you’d get a clue.

“I don’t understand. I’ve never seen anything like it. I really haven’t. It’s like some weird thing where she just, like, doesn’t want to actually fight. She just wants to be glued to you. I don’t know if you saw that fight with Holly Holm where it was just up against the fence the entire time, in the clinch the entire time. I mean, it’s a good way to stay safe. … But you would think that she would listen and kind of get a clue from the boss, and say he wants you to throw your hands, so just do it. Do what he’s telling you to do. She doesn’t listen to her corner, so it’s almost like, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

“She just doesn’t get that fire lit underneath her butt,” Peña continued. “She doesn’t have that eye of the tiger, that shark that smells blood in the water. She’s not a killer. She’s doesn’t have that killer instinct. But I know somebody that does — and her name is Juliana ‘The Venezuelan Vixen,’ the Peña power.”

Peña’s relationship with Pennington stretches back to the pair’s time on The Ultimate Fighter 18 in 2013, a season which saw Peña ultimately emerge as tournament champion. The two did not get along on the show and that animosity has only persisted in the 11 years since.

Peña said on Monday that she is finally healthy and back to training. She promised that she has already spoken with UFC officials about her return and is eyeing a date in either June or July to settle her business with Pennington for the belt. As the only woman to defeat Nunes since 2014, Peña remains one of the most decorated fighters in the UFC’s current women’s bantamweight division, and she vowed to kick Pennington into retirement once they meet.

After that, she’s ready to carry women’s bantamweight into its new era in earnest.

“Whether it was Mayra, whether it was Raquel, it don’t matter. The only one that makes me bleed my own blood is me, OK? So it doesn’t matter who I fight,” Peña said. “However, I know as a businesswoman that Mayra would’ve been the bigger fight because she likes to verbally spar back and she’s more interesting in that sense, and Raquel doesn’t say anything. And that’s why I refer to her as just a boring block of wood, because it’s just there. You know what I mean? It’s like the turtle on top of the pole. It’s like, how did the turtle climb the pole? Well, it just got there but you don’t know how it got there. Somebody put it there.

“It’s not that it got there on its own. It’s that there was no one else. There was literally no one else. The turtle’s on top of the pole because somebody placed you there. And that’s kind of how it is with Raquel. You’re just there because there was no one else. Not because you’re just this really exciting person that the fans are just dying to see you fight. That’s not the case. So it would’ve obviously been better with Mayra. But just wait — wait your turn, wait your turn in line, you’ll get the opportunity. Just wait a little more. She’s right now just a little puppy dog, but she’ll get better. And when she does, I’ll be ready for her.”

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Ian Garry has serious title aspirations and isn’t in the business of making friends. That has been on full display recently as he and Sean Strickland have been arguing back and forth over the past few months.

The Irishman has been on an upward spiral since joining the UFC and has looked impressive each time he has stepped into the cage. After several huge performances, he is now within touching distance of the top 5 at welterweight.

Posting to his social media, Ian Garry shared a short video of his reaction to the Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis title bout. ‘The Future’ didn’t hold back when talking about the two middleweights and their five-round affair.

“I hope Sean gets sparked unconscious,” Garry said as the fight got underway. “There is no way I ever would have bet against Du Plessis losing this fight considering he mauled Robert Whittaker.”

“Sean Strickland isn’t half the fighter Robert Whittaker is… Just sloppy boxing, look. Swinging, look at this. The f***ing state of this. Zero technique, just slugging it out now.”

“Oh my god, I feel like I’m watching two amateurs fight. Oh my god,” Garry said as he burst into laughter. “Oh, my dear Jesus Christ. If I ever have a fight like that, please tell me to retire.”

As Bruce Buffer announced the scorecards, Ian Garry was visibly happy to see his rival Strickland suffer defeat and subsequently lose his middleweight throne.

“Yeah, there you go. F*** you Sean Strickland. Now that fight’s even more available for us.”

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A post shared by ‘The Future’ Ian Machado Garry (@iangarry)

Related: Sean Strickland: ‘I hate f**king Ian Garry so much’

What’s next for Ian Garry?

After six straight wins to start his UFC career, Ian Garry finds himself at #10 in the rankings. 

Undefeated thus far, the 26-year-old has his eyes firmly set on future fights against some of the sport’s elite, but who will he be standing across the octagon from next?

An illness unfortunately halted his potential bout against Vicente Luque and has kept him out for several months longer than he originally planned. 

Now, at UFC 298 on February 17, Garry will lock horns with the heavy-handed Geoff Neal as the two look to stake their claim in the welterweight division.

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Lost every round
| BJPenn.com

No professional sports athlete is immune to psychotic internet fandom behavior, including Tom Aspinall.

The current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) interim Heavyweight champion, Aspinall, has been a positive figure and entertaining fighter in and out of the Octagon since joining the promotion in July 2020. Obviously, the British superstar most certainly should not die, but some Jon Jones fans would, sadly, rather he did, according to Aspinall.

“People on the internet are wild,” Aspinall told Lord Ping. “You have to kind of see it for what it is. It’s not real life, a lot of it comes from jealousy. People don’t like to see other people do well, unfortunately that’s the way of the world. With a lot of love comes a lot of hate as well. That’s the way the cookie crumbles, unfortunately.

“I’m human so it affects me sometimes,” he continued. “But I try to just turn a blind eye to it and just crack on. The internet is a strange place. I clicked on my message requests by accident the other day and people are sending me death threats for wanting to fight Jon Jones, who’s the best in the world and it’s madness. You just think what the f—k is going on in your life that you want to say that you want to kill somebody else because they want to fight, it’s madness.”

The Heavyweight division in UFC has spiraled out of control, or perhaps logic, with the undisputed titleholder, Jones, sidelined for the foreseeable future after he tore his pectoral muscle ahead of UFC 295 this past November 2023. As a result, Aspinall entered on short notice to knock out Sergei Pavlovich in 69 seconds (watch highlights) and start a feud with Jones that won’t have a resolution anytime soon.

Upon Jones’ return, he’s expected to have his original UFC 295 match up against Stipe Miocic rebooked, leaving Aspinall to wait and defend his interim crown in the meantime. Rumblings have surrounded a possible Aspinall return at UFC 300 in April 2024, but options are limited and he would think some crazier types of possibilities are likely, if any are to come.

“With the Jon Jones palaver and all the politics around that, I was thinking maybe they’d give me some freak show kind of fight against Brock Lesnar, or maybe at UFC 300 they’d do something a bit out there like Alex Pereira, but that doesn’t look likely now,” Aspinall said. “I have absolutely no idea about my next move. I’m kind of waiting about.

“I absolutely would be ready for UFC 300, I believe now it’s about three months away and I have been training twice a day since a week after my last fight,” he continued. “So my body is in good shape right now. I could easily turn it up a few notches and be ready for UFC 300. But there isn’t really a realistic opponent. The only realistic ones would be Pereira or Lesnar and they’re not really realistic. Everyone else is kind of tied up right now so my hands are tied.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Jiu-jitsu wizard Mahamed Aly scored a vicious stoppage in his MMA debut Saturday night in Houston, TX.

Aly faced one-time Bellator veteran John Ott in the co-main event of PCS 4 and bloodied the heavyweight before connecting with a perfect right kick to the head to drop Ott out in the opening round.

Check the finishing sequence below.

“I’m not here just to be a jiu-jitsu guy that comes here and finishes people, even though I will finish a lot of people,” Aly said in his post-fight interview. “I want to show that I’m getting better in my striking. I want to throw a lot of elbows, a lot of knees. I couldn’t do it today, but the goal was to throw a lot of knees, a lot of elbows, see some blood. We saw some blood, but I wanted a little more.”

Aly, who turned 30 years old earlier this month, said he has bold plans for his MMA career, including joining the UFC and eventually earning the UFC heavyweight title.

“We have eight more years,” Aly said. “We’re just getting started.”

Now 1-0 in MMA, Aly collected several major titles in the jiu-jitsu circuit as a black belt, winning the IBJJF World Championship without and with the gi in 2015 and 2018, respectively, plus three gold medals at the 2017 IBJJF European Open. He holds grappling wins over the likes of Nicholas Meregali, Alexandre Ribeiro, and Dillon Danis.

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Newly minted undisputed bantamweight champion, Raquel Pennington has opened as a betting favorite to beat former titleholder, Julianna Peña in a future title fight – following her coronation at UFC 297 over the course of the weekend in Toronto.

Pennington, who co-headlined UFC 297 over the course of the weekend in ‘The Great White North’ – turned in a one-sided unanimous decision win over Mayra Bueno Silva in her second pursuit of the bantamweight crown.

Sidelined herself for the prior year, former champion and The Ultimate Fighter winner, Peña has yet to feature since July 2022, most recently suffering a championship fight loss to common-foe, Amanda Nunes in the pair’s title clash rematch.

And forced from a title trilogy rubber match with Nunes at UFC 289 back in June of last year amid an injury, Peña was replaced by Irene Aldana, with the Mexican suffering a unanimous decision loss in what came as Brazilian favorite, Nunes’ final fight.

Welcoming a first title defense against Peña after her one-sided judging win over Bueno Silva at UFC 297 over the course of the weekend, Raquel Pennington has opened as a -150 betting favorite to beat the +130 betting underdog and former gold holder, Peña if they share the Octagon.

Raquel Pennington backed to beat Julianna Peña in UFC title fight

And mentioning her intentions to score a fight with Raquel Pennington as soon as the summer – Julianna Peña has one eye on a potential International Fight Week event in June, which is slated for Las Vegas, where fans and spectators can choose to play the best slots to play online for real money.

Voicing her interest in a quickfire turnaround against Peña in the immediate aftermath of her title fight victory against Bueno Silva in Canada, Pennington notably pointed to the pair’s stint on the above-mentioned Ultimate Fighter – as an interesting storyline for the duo’s expected grudge fight for gold. 

“That’s the fight that makes sense,” Raquel Pennington said of a bout with Julianna Peña whilst speaking after UFC 297. “ I honestly thought that for the world title it was going to be me and Julianna, but she’s still injured.”

“That relationship just goes back to 2013 when we were both back in The Ultimate Fighter,” Raquel Pennington explained. “Let’s just say, I learned Julianna’s personality then, and it’s kind of one of those where you stay your way, and I’ll stay mine, but you get under my damn skin, I’ve been waiting for that fight for 13 years – whether the title is on the line or not.” 

A potential spanner may be thrown into the works for Peña, however, with the above-noted former duel-weight champion, Nunes appearing not so committal on her June retirement, amid her prior TKO win over Pennington, and failing to close the door completely on a return to the sport. 

“We’ll see what happens, you know,” Amanda Nunes told Megan Olivi following UFC 297. “I’m still young, you know – fresh. You know, like, you never know. We have a lot of things to do, I have a lot of things to figure out at home still – what I’m gonna do. And, we’ll see what happens.”

“I don’t know, you know,” Amanda Nunes explained when asked if the door remained open on her return. “I’m a fighter, you know. This is my job. And I love this so much, and I don’t know.”

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UFC

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Chris Curtis scored a big win at UFC 297, even if he didn’t win over everyone.

During Curtis’ three-round fight with Marc-Andre Barriault this past Saturday in Toronto, “The Action Man” and his opponent were occasionally booed as they engaged in a tactical striking battle. Curtis went on to earn a split decision and snap a three-fight winless skid, but the moment was somewhat spoiled by the bout’s critical reception.

What bothered Curtis the most was the commentary by analysts Dominick Cruz and Daniel Cormier, who Curtis says have never given him a fair shake.

“I get s*** on by ‘DC’ and Dominick Cruz every time I fight,” Curtis said on The MMA Hour. “No matter what’s happening. DC was kinder than before, but Dominick Cruz is just like, ‘It looks like he’s sparring,’ and blah blah blah. Bro, [Barriault is] a solid man. He’s been knocked out once, I have been knocked out once. It’s not going to be easy to knock the other down, it’s just not. I hit him with some s*** that I’ve dropped people with, and he just kind of looked at it. I elbowed him a few times, I went to move in, he’s just staring at me like he’s back there. I hear Dominick Cruz say, ‘It’s just like a sparring match,’ and then, not to be a dick, but people are going to latch on to what the commentary says, and now I hear, ‘He didn’t even fight hard. It was a low-energy sparring match.’ Stand in front of me and let me hit you the same way.

“Marc-Andre Barriault is a f****** tank. The dude’s been stopped once, and that’s why. I don’t know where you guys found that man, but he’s a tank. I hit him with everything and the kitchen sink, and he stayed on his feet and he kept throwing back. The dude hit me with some s***, and my face still hurts today. But because of Dominick Cruz’s stupid f****** commentary, I get to hear, ‘It’s a sparring match and low volume.’ … This is why I watch fights with the volume off. This is exactly why.”

A veteran of 42 pro fights, Curtis is no stranger to impressive knockouts, including three in his five UFC wins, but he hasn’t put an opponent away inside the distance since December 2022. That said, it was just two fights prior to UFC 297 that he won a “Fight of the Night” award in a loss to Kelvin Gastelum.

Rather than change up his style, Curtis welcomes Cruz to stand across from him sometime and get a hands-on experience of what he has to offer in the striking department.

“You know what?” Curtis said. “I cannot win to save my life. ‘Aw, he’s low output.’ I did more than him and I threw more punches in this fight than the Gastelum fight, which was applauded for the action. I had 40, 90, then 100-something punches in the round. I’m just like, I can’t make people happy. It’s fine. I’m happy with myself. I did the things I wanted to do. I didn’t make the same mistakes over and over and over. I’m happy. I can always do better, sure, but I’m proud of what I did and if the fans didn’t like it, I’m sorry. It’s a pro fight.

“But then again, I laughed when I saw people talking about the [Sean] Strickland-Dricus [du Plessis] fight. ‘They’re just throwing sloppy punches’ and blah blah blah, so apparently Sean and Dricus are throwing big, sloppy, power punches with no technique, but according to Dominick Cruz and now the internet because everyone just latches on to commentators, ‘Aw, you’re just sparring.’

“Dominick Cruz, stand here Dominick Cruz, and let me hit you the way I was hitting him and see if it’s just sparring. No, we’re two large, solid men. I promise you guys, I was hitting him f****** hard, he was hitting me hard, I feel it since the fight. [Cruz] is like, ‘It looks like sparring.’ I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, the narrative is glorious.’ So I’m proud of myself, I’m very proud of myself.”

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