Raquel Pennington has a chance to take the vacant bantamweight title and keep it for herself at UFC 297. The title was left vacant when the former champion, Amanda Nunes announced her retirement from the sport. Now, at UFC 297, it will find its new champion. Will it be Pennington?

Pennington is the #2 ranked fighter in the women’s bantamweight division. In the women’s pound-for-pound rankings, she stands at #12. She has a brilliant 15-9 record in her professional career and is ready to take the championship by storm. Here’s more about her.

Raquel Pennington, where is she from?

Raquel Pennington started training in mixed martial arts back when she was 19 years old. From then, to today, she has clearly come a long way. Admitting to having spent her summers in Florida, the fighter was actually born in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Pennington is half-Caucasian and half-Mexican. Standing at 5 feet 7 inches in height, the fighter is married to UFC strawweight fighter Tecia Torres. While she grew up playing sports like volleyball, softball, and basketball, her interests took her to boxing, and eventually, to mixed martial arts.

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Her parents didn’t support her bid to pursue the sport initially, but she persevered towards it anyway. In 2007, she graduated from Harrison High School with many athletic and academic scholarships to her name.

Interestingly, she shares her moniker with none other than the men’s welterweight champion of the UFC, Leon Edwards. Both of them are called ‘Rocky’ thanks to their dynamic and explosive boxing skills. Raquel took to Instagram on the 24th of December to detail out some facts about herself where she admitted to being deathly scared of alligators and sharks. Who wouldn’t be? Thankfully for her, Mayra Bueno Silva is no alligator. But she’s confident, and a beast inside the cage.

Mayra Bueno Silva believes she’ll dominate Pennington

When Pennington fought former champ Amanda Nunes in 2018, right before her loss, she was heard admitting defeat. On broadcast, she told her corner that she was done with the fight. Bueno Silva brought up this incident during an interview with Ariel Helwani on ‘The MMA Hour.’

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“Do you remember Raquel fought with Amanda, Raquel said, ‘Alright, I’m done. I don’t want to fight anymore.’ Do you remember? For this reason, she doesn’t want to fight. She doesn’t like to fight. She wants to hold [during] the fight because she doesn’t like fighting.” She told Helwani.

Since 2018, Raquel Pennington has redeemed herself by winning most of her fights until now, amassing six wins in eight fights. Will she add one more to her career with the title sitting on her shoulder? We’ll find out at UFC 297.

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