Raquel Pennington dominates Mayra Bueno Silva, becomes sixth women’s 135 lb champion at UFC 297
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, January 20, 2024, for UFC 297, going down live from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Headlining the event is a middleweight title bout between Sean Strickland (28-5) and no. 2 ranked Dricus du Plessis (20-2).
Co-headlining the event was also a championship affair, this one coming in the bantamweight division between no. 2 ranked former title challenger Raquel Pennington (16-8) and no. 3 ranked Mayra Bueno Silva (10-3-1) 1 NC.
Pennington, following her second defeat to former champion Holly Holm in January of 2020, had since won her last five-straight fights coming in, while Silva on the other hand came in on a four-fight win streak, her last three-straight coming via submission.
Continue reading to see how our co-main event of the evening went down:
Official Result: Raquel Pennington def. Mayra Bueno Silva via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-45)
Pennington goes for two single leg takedowns in the opening round, failing on each attempt and eventually getting her back taken where much of round one plays out.
Silva continues to look good until Pennington backs her up with a solid combination three minutes into round two. Pennington follows up and continues landing on Silva, though she ties up with her and gets her back taken again. Silva attempts a neck crank but is unable to secure the submission and we see a third round.
Both women spend time in control inside the clinch through the first three or so minutes of round three. Silva shoots in on a takedown and is locked in a front choke, where she immediately falls to her back to evade the finish. Pennington lets her up, where Silva shoots on another takedown and is again locked in a front choke, where she again falls to her back and ends the round on bottom.
Pennington opens up the fourth landing a heavy superman punch, before following up with more heavy shots. Silva takes Pennington’s back shortly thereafter and nearly secures the rear naked choke finish; it was so close and fully sunk in, but she didn’t use her legs and was shook off, spending the remainder of the round on her back eating heavy shots.
Silva ties up with Pennington early on in the fifth and final round. Once she fails to secure a takedown she falls to her back, where she spends the rest of the round absolutely exhausted. Pennington secures mount immediately following the takedown and sinks in an arm-triangle choke, threatening with it for over a minute. She was too high to get the finish however and eventually lets it go. She also lets go of some heavy punches from top position, before standing up and kicking the legs of the downed Silva as the bout came to a close.
After opening up her career with a record of 5-5 across her first ten professional bouts, Raquel Pennington won her next four-straight, including wins over future UFC champion Jessica Andrade (rear naked choke) and former title challenger Bethe Correia (SD), before finishing up that streak with a dominant win over former Strikeforce and UFC bantamweight champion Miesha Tate (UD).
That led to her first title fight against the greatest female mixed martial arts fighter of all time Amanda Nunes.
Pennington would lose the bout via TKO in round five, and lost two of her next three, going 1-3 from 2018 to 2020 with losses to Nunes, as well as other former UFC champions Germaine de Randamie (UD) and Holly Holm (UD), the win coming over no. 5 ranked Irene Aldana (SD).
Since then however Pennington has won her last six-straight, defeating the likes of Marion Reneau (UD), no. 7 ranked Pannie Kianzad (UD), no. 9 ranked Macy Chiasson (guillotine choke), current PFL talent and former ranked bantamweight Aspen Ladd (UD), no. 4 ranked Ketlen Vieira (SD), and now no. 3 ranked Mayra Bueno Silva (UD), becoming the sixth UFC women’s bantamweight champion in history tonight at UFC 297.
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