On November 12, the UFC will make its long-awaited debut in New York City with UFC 205. To celebrate its first trip to The Big Apple, the organization has stacked the UFC 205 lineup with some dynamite fights, including three title fights, and four fights featuring former champions.
One of the most interesting fights of the night will see the streaking Raquel Pennington take on the toughest test of her career in recent women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate. The pair will kick off UFC 205’s pay-per-view main card.
Pennington and Tate have plenty of history together – but not the kind of history that will make this fight a grudge match.
The pair met on season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter, when Pennington was a contestant, and Tate was her coach. Throughout this time on the show, the two bantamweights would develop a long-lasting friendship. At UFC 205 however, that friendship will get put on hold for up to 15 minutes of battle.
Given that this fight marks Tate’s opportunity to rebound from her title loss to Amanda Nunes, and Pennington’s opportunity to burst into title contention with a win over a top-5 foe, you can be certain that both women are grinding away in the gym. Yet as a recent Instagram post from UFC strawweight Tecia Torres shows, Pennington is still finding opportunities for fun in the gym. Torres, who is Pennington’s wife, made this post over the weekend.
The video shows the two fighters working out together, executing variations on squats and pushups, and squeezing in kisses between reps. Cute stuff from one of MMA’s power couples!
Pennington will enter her bout with Tate with three straight wins behind her: a submission defeat of Jessica Andrade and decisions over Bethe Correia and Elizabeth Phillips. Torres, meanwhile, has not been seen since an April loss to Rose Namajunas. Prior to that defeat, she had not lost as a professional mixed martial artist.
Do you think Pennington can beat Tate at UFC 205? Sound off, PENN nation!