Mayra
Bueno Silva and Raquel
Pennington will square off at UFC 297
for the women’s bantamweight crown, which was left vacant when
Amanda
Nunes retired in June.
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Silva was so excited when she heard the announcement that she was
initially confused about her opponent, as she at first thought she
would be facing former champ Julianna
Pena at the Jan. 20 event.
“At first I thought it was going to be Julianna, so we started
watching all of Julianna’s fights after dinner,” Silva recently
told
MMAFighting.com. “A week later, I found out it was against
Raquel. I didn’t even think about it, I thought it was Julianna
because we were planning for that, right? I was super happy,
already studying for Julianna, and then, ‘No, no, no, it’s Raquel.’
I was so excited [to fight for the UFC title], I didn’t even ask
who the opponent was.”
While Silva would have preferred Pena as an opponent for marquee
value, she believes Pennington will be the tougher fight.
“Like it or not, Julianna would be more exciting as a fight,” Silva
said. “Not that Raquel is a bad athlete, but Julianna promotes
fights better. Raquel is not that type of person, she doesn’t talk
too much. She’s the type of athlete that likes to fight, and that’s
it, so I was like, ‘Damn, I’ll have to try to promote this fight on
my own.’ But my total focus is the best regardless.
“The fight just got a bit tougher, because Raquel is tougher than
Julianna, but it doesn’t matter because the focus is the same.
Raquel is physically stronger. She’s been through ups and downs in
the organization, she’s a veteran that brings more danger in the
striking area than Julianna.”
Pena pulled out of a trilogy clash against Nunes in June and
couldn’t recover in time for the UFC 297 title fight. The former
champ has dismissed the Silva vs. Pennington as an “interim” clash
and expects to fight for the title on her return. However, Silva
isn’t so sure.
“Julianna will stay injured for the rest of her career,” Silva
said. “She doesn’t want to fight. She just wants to talk. All she
does is noise. I have so much fun with her. Every time she posts
something about me, it’s just funny to me. I hope this fight
happens, because it will fans will have so much fun. I promise to
beat the crap out of her and show who’s the boss.”