With all the switch-ups and fight announcements, it’s hard to keep up. The UFC is scrambling to add to cards and take from others in order to fill in for all of the changes resulting from the chaos. Amanda Nunes and Cris Cyborg seemed all but official as a superfight, that was until the UFC needed a main event title fight for UFC 222 after Max Holloway had to pull out. Due to the booking of Cyborg and Yana Kunitskaya, Combate is now reporting that Amanda Nunes will fight Raquel Pennington in defense of her UFC women’s bantamweight title at UFC 224 in Brazil.
Jesus, I just want announced my fight. 😫
— Amanda Nunes (@Amanda_Leoa) February 7, 2018
Amanda Nunes defenderá cinturão contra Raquel Pennington, no UFC Rio 9, em maio via @raphamarinho https://t.co/MP0LypIytp
— Ana Hissa (@AnaHissa) February 10, 2018
Amanda Nunes is on a six-fight win streak over the best women in her division. Racking up wins against Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, and now two against Valentina Shevchenko, she’ll be fighting Raquel Pennington in her third attempted title defense. Pennington has been on a four-fight win streak herself, but hasn’t returned to the cage since her win over Tate back in 2016 due to an injury.
The pay-per-view in Rio de Janeiro seemed perfect for Cyborg to fight Amanda Nunes, who’d be stepping up in weight to challenge for the UFC women’s featherweight title. The good news is though, that the UFC is now targeting UFC 226 for that match-up, so we’d still get the superfight. Not only that, but at least two superfights in one night. With the rumored placement of Demetrious Johnson and TJ Dillashaw being on that card, is this whole three superfights on one card going to happen after all? They’d have to make the fight to begin with, which seems to be still wrapped up in negotiations.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/10/2018.