Raquel Pennington (-166) over Julianna Pena
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- Pennington has won six straight fights and has not lost a bout since 2020 against Holly Holm.
- We haven’t seen Julianna Pena since 2022 and are concerned that the layoff could impact her in this fight.
The UFC women’s bantamweight championship has a strong history with many great fighters claiming it over the years. On Saturday night, another chapter in its history will be written at UFC 307 when Raquel Pennington puts that title on the line against Julianna Pena. Here, we break down this bout and make our UFC betting picks for Raquel Pennington vs Julianna Pena in the co-main event of this UFC PPV card.
This fight will take place at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, UT on Saturday, October 5, 2024.
Raquel Pennington
Raquel Pennington has been on fire over the last few years in UFC. She has won six fights in a row dating back to June of 2020, including her women’s bantamweight title triumph earlier this year against Mayra Bueno Silva. Here, Pennington is tasked with defending the women’s bantamweight title for the first time in this Raquel Pennington vs Julianna Pena bout for UFC gold.
In this fight, Pennington wants to keep things on the feet as she is the more gifted striker of the two combatants. Pena is going to want to keep this fight on the ground for five rounds. It will be up to Pennington to prevent that from happening by punishing her opponent with strikes when she tries to close distance and take her down, though that is easier said than done.
Julianna Pena
We haven’t seen Julianna Pena in a while in a UFC octagon. Her last fight came in 2022 when she relinquished this championship back to Amanda Nunes after beating her for it in December of 2021. It will be interesting to see whether the time away from action helps or hurts Pena in this fight, one where she looks to become a two-time champion in this weight class.
The game plan for Pena is far from a secret, as her goal in this fight is going to be to bully Pennington and get her to the ground where Pena can control the fight. Pena’s physicality is a strength to be sure, but we don’t know if it has survived the couple of years off that Pena has taken either. That will be the big question going into this five-round matchup from Salt Lake City.
