Pennington: Ronda Rousey Made Me Sign Non-Disclosure Agreement For Sparring
Leading up to her return at UFC 207 over a week ago (Friday, December 30, 2016) former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey kept a very private fight camp and refused to speak to media leading up to her contest with Amanda Nunes.
It was revealed that Rousey brought in No. 5-ranked UFC women’s bantamweight Raquel Pennington to spar with her in preparation for the heavy-handed Nunes, as ‘Rocky’ stated during a recent interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. Pennington said she was asked by Rousey to be a part of her camp after the ceremonial weigh-ins in New York City for UFC 205, where Rousey squared off against Nunes for the first time:
“I actually talked to Ronda the night of the weigh-ins in New York [before UFC 205],” Pennington said. “I bumped into Ronda and she asked if she could contact me and bring me out for some work.
“I’ve been out to Los Angeles to see her and [teammate] Shayna Baszler before. A lot of us are friends outside the Octagon. I’m always up for challenges. Everybody brings something new to the table. It was definitely a solid experience.”
When prodded about how Rousey’s training camp went and what happened during their sparing sessions, Pennington stated that she was not allowed to say as ‘Rowdy’ made her sign a non-disclosure agreement prior to her participation in the camp:
“I can’t really talk about how sparring went or what we did,” Pennington said. “Ronda asked me to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so I did. All I can say is the fact I was able to put in work with her and that it was solid work. I can’t say too much more than that.”
Rousey would go on to lose her bout against Nunes, after taking over a year off from the sport following the first loss of her professional career to Holly Holm, being knocked out in the first round after just 48 seconds. Given the way Rousey handled her first loss much speculation has erupted as to whether or not we’ll ever see her compete in the Octagon again.
![ronda-rousey-1483649773-800[1]](https://www.lowkickmma.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ronda-rousey-1483649773-8001.jpg "Pennington: Ronda Rousey Made Me Sign Non-Disclosure Agreement For Sparring 2")
Despite suffering yet another loss, Pennington is holding out hope that ‘The Rowdy One’ won’t walk away from mixed martial arts (MMA) competition after suffering another defeat:
“I would hope so,” she said. “I would hope she wouldn’t finish her career like that. Obviously, I’d say that about anybody. Any athlete, you wouldn’t want to see them go out like that. It’d be good to see her pick her head up and get in there and get another fight in.”
