Raquel Pennington is dealing with a new challenge headed into her UFC 307 title fight against Julianna Pena.
Pennington (16-8) will defend her women’s bantamweight title against Pena (11-5) in the UFC 307 co-main event on Oct. 5 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. When “Rocky” won the vacant title against Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 297 in January, her wife Tecia Pennington (13-7) was taking care of their daughter Alayah Rose during fight camp. When Tecia subsequently dropped a split decision against Tabatha Ricci in May, “Rocky” was there to return the favor.
However, the partners will be sharing the UFC 307 card, with Tecia taking on former champ Carla Esparza (19-7) in the early prelims. With both of them being in camp, the Penningtons have had to deal with the challenge of taking care of their daughter, who is barely over a year old. However, “Rocky” is grateful for the support system around her which has made the camp smooth.
“The new challenge has been with Tecia, she’s obviously on the same card,” Pennington told MMA Junkie. “That was my idea. She hates that. So if you talk to Tecia that’s one thing. When I fought for the world title, it was my first fight as far as being a mom and Tecia got to hold down the fort. And then she fought Mother’s Day weekend and I got to hold down the fort. So now we came across having a new challenge, both of us being in camp. And we learned the true definition of raising a kid truly does take a village. So I’m super thankful for that. My family, my best friend; my mom have been 100% amazing through this. Our daughter, she’s been a little trooper through it all. Everything has gone so smooth.”
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While they will share the card, Raquel confirmed that neither will be in each other’s corners.
Esparza and Pennington will be running it back from their initial encounter at “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 20 in 2014, which “The Cookie Monster” won via majority decision. Esparza has confirmed that she’ll be riding off into the sunset after UFC 307. Considering Tecia’s loss to Ricci in her return to action after two years, many believe “The Tiny Tornado” could retire after UFC 307 as well. However, Raquel confirms that her wife still has more left within her.
“This is just another fight for her. Tecia still has a lot in there… She’s still ready to be that tiny tornado.”
