Raquel Pennington continues attack on Sean Strickland for “disgusting” comments about women’s MMA
It appears as though Raquel Pennington hasn't forgotten about Sean Strickland's comments ahead of UFC 297 and continued her attack on the former middleweight champion.
'Rocky' sat next to 'Tarzan' during the UFC 297 pre-fight press conference and clearly wasn't too thrilled about his previous comments on women's MMA as well as a number of other topics. During her appearance on today's episode of The MMA Hour, the new women's bantamweight champion continued to put Strickland on blast for the comments he made and mentioned that women's MMA isn't going anywhere. She said:
"What you do with your life doesn't effect me. I just think it was disgusting on his part to even be concerned about us as human beings and our lifestyle, and just the comments he was making. And at the end of the day, MMA has grown a ton. The women are here. We're here to stay...So to criticize female athletes, I don't agree with any of that but I can't control that and that wasn't my focus."
Despite being upset by Strickland's comments, it didn't take any focus away from her title fight as she went on to earn a unanimous decision win over Mayra Bueno Silva to win the vacant women's bantamweight championship.
Raquel Pennington expresses interest in fighting Julianna Pena
Raquel Pennington has had a lengthy MMA career and recently achieved her greatest accomplishment as by winning the vacant UFC women's bantamweight championship.
Since then, there has been plenty of discussion surrounding who her first challenger will be, and she has already expressed interest in fighting former champion Julianna Pena. During the aforementioned appearance, Pennington mentioned that a bout against Pena has been long awaited, dating back to their stint on 'The Ultimate Fighter'. Outlining when that fight could take place, she said:
"I thought she [Julianna Pena] was gonna be the one that we were gonna fight for the vacant title, but she's still battling an injury I guess...That's the fight I want, so that's where my mind frame's at, that's where my coaches' mind frames are at, so we'll see how it plays out...I'm thinking honestly, probably not until at least August, maybe September or even later than that."