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. Read more about Mayra Bueno Silva Would Have Preferred to Face Julianna Pena at UFC 297