Germaine De Randamie Sweeps Raquel Pennington On Judges’ Cards
Top UFC women’s bantamweight contenders Raquel Pennington and Germaine de Randamie had some questions to answer in their main card bout at tonight’s (Sat., November 10, 2018) UFC Fight Night 139 from Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado.
Pennington came off of a vicious stoppage loss to current champ Amanda Nunes this May. The hometown fan favorite missed weight for the contest, therefore forcing it to be at a 138-pound catchweight.
De Randamie, meanwhile, had not fought since her controversial title win over Holly Holm in February 2017. She vacated the title for failing to defend it and then experienced a run of injuries.
Round One:
Pennington came off with two punches off the glove tap. De Randamie threw some hard shots in response. Pennington clinched against the fence and went for a double leg. ‘Rocky’ neutralized de Randamie on the fence, landing knees to her thighs. De Randamie countered with her own big knee in the Muay Thai clinch. ‘The Iron Lady’ scored with another huge knee to the body. Pennington answered with an uppercut. She clinched more but de Randamie broke to land a big punch. Pennington shot for a takedown that was easily defended to end the round.
Round Two:
Pennington landed a low kick to begin the second. She doubled it up and went for a takedown, but again de Randamie defended to score with good strikes. A huge one-two snapped Pennington’s head. ‘The Iron Lady’ scored a right hook and a straight to the body. A hard low kick stumbled ‘Rocky.’ Pennington landed one strike and de Randamie countered.
De Randamie hit a high kick and Pennington a body kick and a low kick. A jab came from de Randamie to counter. Pennington clinched to land some elbows. De Randamie broke to land some strikes, and Pennington landed some of her own as the second frame came to a conclusion.
Round Three:
De Randamie pressed the pace to start the third. She landed a thudding low kick and just missed on a big head kick. ‘The Iron Lady’ popped a left hook and a solid uppercut. Pennington wasn’t out of it, but she wasn’t scoring. A low kick found another home for de Randamie and Pennington went back to a clinch. The action slowed. A low knee forced the referee to stop the action briefly. Pennington went to the clinch again to land a knee to the body. ‘Rocky’ went for the takedown but couldn’t get it, and de Randamie scored a low and body kick to close the action.
Another grueling, low-on-action fight came to an end.
Final Result: Germaine de Randamie def. Raquel Pennington via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
