UFC 224: Nunes Criticizes Pennington's Team For Not Stopping The Fight

Amanda Nunes successfully defended her Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Women’s bantamweight title with a knockout victory over Raquel Pennington at UFC 224 on Saturday night.

The Brazilian dominated the bout against Pennington in her homeland and was eventually declared the winner when the referee stepped in to stop the fight 2:36 minutes into Round 5 via a technical knockout.

It was Nunes’ third title defence since she beat Meisha Tate in July 2016 to win the women’s bantamweight title. She has since beaten Ronda Rousey and Valentina Shevchenko before her most recent win over Pennington.

The Brazilian won three of her four bouts via knockout, and her reign as the UFC women’s bantamweight champion is currently the second longest, only behind Rousey who was champion for just under three years in the UFC.

However, a bigger story erupted after Nunes’ win at UFC 224. It emerged that Pennington’s corner forced her to fight the fifth round despite the Colorado-born fighter saying she was “done” and wanted the fight to be over with.

Pennington can be heard telling her cornerman Jason Kutz: “I’m done — I want to be done” in between rounds four and five after it was clear that she had suffered a broken nose in round 4. But her corner was not willing to listen to her pleas and forced her to continue the fight.

She showed some signs of a fight back, but Nunes’ attack proved to be too strong as the referee stepped into stop the fight midway through the fifth round. Kutz received wide spread criticism from fans and fellow fighters for his actions.

“No, no, no, girl,” Kutz said, as quoted on MMA Junkie. “Don’t go out like this. C’mon, girl. I know it hurts. Let’s power through this. Let’s power through this and believe. Change your mindset. Let’s throw everything we got. We’ll recover later. Throw everything we got.”

Even Nunes, who was informed about Pennington’s team’s actions after the fight, was unhappy and advised the Colorado-born fighter to surround herself with people who care for her well-being. The Brazilian is certain that her coach would have heeded her request if she was in a similar situation.

The women’s bantamweight champion believes the coach should have listened to the fighter and not allowed her to continue, especially since they were aware that she had suffered a broken nose in round four.

“It’s sad,” Nunes told reporters, including MMAjunkie, through an interpreter at the UFC 224 post-fight news conference. “(My girlfriend) Nina (Ansaroff) told me. I didn’t even know. Nina told me in the locker room. It’s sad because you could avoid something. She went to the hospital. It might be a bad injury for her to go to the hospital. I already asked Nina to text her — if she needs anything I’m here.”

“If she didn’t have the right conditioning to fight then the coach should have thrown in the towel for sure. I think my coach wouldn’t let me go through that. It’s sad. Everyone must be saying a lot of bad things about him on social media, but I really think she needs to surround herself with people who want the best for her so she can really evolve for her next fights. Unfortunately, tonight (the cornerman) failed,” the Brazilian added.