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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Raquel Pennington has seen this before.

Back in 2015, when Ronda Rousey was one of the biggest stars in the UFC, and desperately in need of new competition, Holly Holm made her debut against Pennington to much fanfare following her Hall of Fame boxing career. Pennington actually took Holm to a split decision in that fight before “The Preacher’s Daughter” proved the hype was real when she demolished Rousey just nine months later.

As Pennington approaches her first title defense in the UFC 307 co-main event, she sees something similar happening with two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison, a big free-agent signing poised to become No. 1 contender with a win over Ketlen Vieira on Saturday.

“I feel like Kayla is the new Holly,” Pennington told MMA Fighting. “Everybody’s on her hype train. Everybody else, I feel they really truly had to build themselves up. Like Amanda [Nunes] said, for her first few fights, the world was just constantly talking shit, hating on her and then she proved her damn point and she built that for her.

“You just have some athletes come in and they have that, they have the hype train, they have the fans behind them and everything else and I feel that’s what Kayla has.”

Pennington doesn’t necessarily hold any animosity towards Harrison for the attention she’s receiving, but she knows from her own career that nothing was handed to her solely on name value.

That’s one of the reasons why Pennington wasn’t keen on Harrison getting a title shot immediately after she tore through Holm back at UFC 300.

“I’ve stated it before, I’ve been in this sport for a really long time, I’ve had to work from the bottom up,” Pennington explained. “I’ve never been handed anything. It gets frustrating when you’re busting your ass and there’s athletes who all of a sudden just because they have huge hype or this, that or another and they come in and all of a sudden they get thrown to the very top.

“I was very adamant about the fact — and yeah, being a champion, I’m down to fight anybody — but I just feel as a person and for other fellow athletes who are in the position that I’ve always been in, did I think it was fair for Kayla to come in [and get a title shot]? No. Was I more set on Julianna [Peña]? Yes, because of the history and everything else.”

Pennington gets her wish as she faces Peña in the UFC 307 co-main event with Harrison sitting just two spots behind her on the card.

It’s almost certain if Harrison wins she gets a title shot and Pennington is happy that she won’t have to wait long for a new No. 1 contender to emerge after she gets through Peña on Saturday.

As much as she wishes all fighters had to truly earn their way to the top, Pennington is genuinely excited to eventually face Harrison in the cage to see if the hype is real. In fact, Pennington actually spent a big part of her training camp preparing for Harrison just in case Peña failed to show up.

“Do I love the fact that the matchup is there between Kayla and Ketlen? I absolutely do,” Pennington said. “Do I think it’s definitely a No. 1 contender fight? I do.

“Honestly we prepared for this fight, too, because Julianna has a history of getting injured that it could possibly be Kayla getting bumped up. I know she put it out there she wanted to be the backup fighter. So I prepared for two different chicks here. You need to wait your turn but with that being said, I am older, I plan on going out there and I plan on winning this fight and then after that, do I think regardless it will probably be Kayla next? I absolutely do. I would love to be the one to go out there and just shut that shit up.”

Looking back at the history of the bantamweight division in the UFC there have been a couple of distinct eras starting with Rousey’s reign and then Amanda Nunes’ emergence as arguably the greatest of all time.

Now Pennington is ready to establish a new standard with her first title defense and then hopefully add Harrison’s name to the list of fighters she wasn’t supposed to beat.

“Ronda had her journey and then Amanda came out and just completely cleared out everything and shut everybody up,” Pennington said. “What can I do?

“Well all of a sudden Kayla gets signed and it’s like cool, aside from achieving my ultimate goal, now you have another big game. I would love to shut that hype train down.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

MMA Fighting has DWCS Season 8: Week 8 results for all the action from season eight, week eight of UFC’s Contender Series on Tuesday night at UFC APEX in Las Vegas.

In the main event, undefeated light heavyweight Diyar Nurgozhay (9-0) fights Polish standout Bartosz Szewczyk (8-2-1). Nurgozhay most recently fought for UAE Warriors this past May, when he defeated 2019 PFL champion Emiliano Sordi via first-round TKO.

Szewczyk has primarily competed for Poland’s Fight Exclusive Night promotion, where he won a light heavyweight title this past February.

In the penultimate bout of the evening, former Combate Global fighter Alberto Montes (10-1) fights Carlos Calderon (6-2) in a featherweight bout.

Thus far 29 contracts have been awarded this season, with only two events seeing all five winners earn a shot in the UFC. That includes last week, where a flurry of first-round finishes led to an enthusiastic Dana White signing all the victorious fighters.

Check out DWCS results below.

Fight Card

Diyar Nurgozhay vs. Bartosz Szewczyk

Alberto Montes vs. Carlos Calderon

David Martinez vs. Xavier Franklin

Torrez Finney vs. Abdellah Er-Ramy

Jacobe Smith vs. Christien Savoie

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Umar Nurmagomedov is staying busy as he waits for UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili.

The 18-0 MMA fighter faces two-time Bellator champion Eduardo Dantas in a grappling match that headlines ADXC 7 in Abu Dhabi, the promotion announced Monday. The card goes down at Mubadala Arena on Oct. 25, a day before UFC 308 lands in the United Arab Emirates.

Nurmagomedov hopes to get a shot at newly crowned 135-pound champion Merab Dvalishvili after winning six in a row under the UFC banner, capped off by a unanimous decision over Cory Sandhagen this past August. Nurmagomedov’s first two UFC wins came via submission, with seven total throughout his MMA career.

Dantas, a black belt in jiu-jitsu and 23-8 in MMA, has also won seven fights by way of submission, including a second-round arm-triangle choke to tap Zach Makovsky to win a Bellator belt in 2012. He then successfully defended it with a rear-naked choke of Anthony Leone.

ADXC 7 also features a match between jiu-jitsu world champion Isaque Bahiense and Bruno Lima, as well as Jansen Gomes vs. Uanderson Ferreira.

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Beef squashed
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“God of War” has opened up about his violent loss.

Benoit Saint-Denis suffered his first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) main event loss at UFC Paris this past weekend (Sat., Sept. 28, 2024) when Renato Moicano battered the French fighter to force a doctor stoppage in between rounds two and three from inside Accor Arena in Paris, France (watch highlights).

A day after the fight, Saint-Denis took to his social media to issue a statement.

“It wasn’t my day, this sport is hard but incredible,” Saint-Denis wrote on Instagram (translated through Instagram. “Thank you to everyone for your unwavering support. Proud to have been able to represent France in the octagon and at home. Respect to my opponent for facing me at home, and congratulations to Renato Moicano. God tests us, and that’s nothing to compare with what I could experience.”

UFC Paris was Saint-Denis’ second stoppage loss in a row after amassing a five-fight finish streak. Dustin Poirier knocked him out at UFC 299 in March.

“God of War” has already suffered an absurd amount of damage in his eight-fight UFC career and will hopefully take several months off to rest and recover.

Moicano offered Saint-Denis the opportunity to train at his gym at American Top Team in Florida, which would be incredibly wise. They can both heal together.

For complete UFC Paris results, coverage, and highlights, click HERE.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts