Today, Dana White took to social media and announced UFC 307 in Salt Lake City. The event goes down on October 5th and headlining the announcement was a light heavyweight title fight in the main event and a women’s bantamweight title fight in the co-main event.
The champion Raquel Pennington (16-8) will look to make her first successful title defense as she takes on former champion Julianna Pena (10-5). This is the title fight we’ve been expecting and it’s been rumored for this date, but it’s now official.
Starting with Pena, this will be her first fight in over two years. The last time we saw Pena was in July 2022 in her rematch with Amanda Nunes. Pena shocked the world in December 2021 when she dethroned Nunes to become bantamweight champion.
When they ran things back, Nunes completely dominated the fight to regain her title. Pena has dealt with a ton of injuries since including broken ribs which took her out of a trilogy fight with Nunes and took her out of the vacant title fight at UFC 297 that Raquel Pennington won. Now, she’ll get her shot to regain the title.
UFC 307
It’s been quite the run for Raquel Pennington in the UFC. She was on the season of The Ultimate Fighter that Julianna Pena won back in 2013. Pennington lost in the semifinals of TUF. After starting her octagon career 2-2 through four fights, Pennington won four in a row to earn a title shot against Amanda Nunes.
Pennington lost that fight in lopsided fashion and starting with that fight, she went just 1-3 in four fights. You wondered if she’d ever get back up to the top of the division. Then, Pennington won five straight fights including a decision over top contender Ketlen Vieira. That earned her a vacant title shot with Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 297 in January.
Pennington won that fight by decision and in the crowning moment of her fighting career, she became the bantamweight champion. Now, the challenges begin and it starts with the former champion in October.