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This article first appeared on the Bloody Elbow Substack on January 21, 2024. For early access to exclusive content become a paid subscriber!
The UFC has been leading the way for mixed martial arts in North America for more than 30 years now. In that time, the promotion has seen a whole slew of title holders. Since the first heavyweight champion was crowned in 1997, 98 different men and women have worn UFC gold.
Some of those have become all time legends. Fighters like Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, Amanda Nunes, and Valentina Shevchenko set new standards for their divisions—defending their belts for years on end, while the competition struggled to keep up with greatness.
Others have fallen far to the wayside. The Ricco Rodriguezes, the Murilo Bustamantes, the Johny Hendrickses. No shame in it—the chances for anyone to win a title belt in the UFC are incredibly slim. Not everyone can become a legend, sometimes it’s just enough to get your name in the history books at all.
The curse of the dominant UFC champ
One of the the hallmarks of lesser title reigns are often that they come directly in the shadows of greatness. Part of the price of having truly dominant figures in combat sports is that they can create a power vacuum around them. Suddenly the ‘champ’ is gone and the 4-5 top contenders that seemed a mile away from ever beating them only have one another to deal with.
We’ve had 5 light heavyweight champions since Jon Jones vacated his title in 2020. Yesterday Sean Strickland was middleweight champ, today it’s Dricus Du Plessis. Come 2025 would anyone be that shocked if Israel Adesanya was wearing gold again?
Much more than ‘Stillknocks’ however, it’s hard not to see Raquel Pennington’s performance in the UFC 297 co-main event and think that the belt likely belongs to whoever steps up next. She looked slow and cumbersome in a fight where her opponent gassed badly before the championship rounds, and then very clearly quit on herself before the final bell.
Pennington deserves all the credit
I don’t want to deny Pennington the thrill of victory. A lifetime of hardwork went into this moment. She deserves her flowers. And hopefully she’ll get enough decent paydays out of this that she’ll be secure in retirement no matter how her title reign shakes out. But, it has to rank up there with Bas Rutten’s guard game and Nicco Montano TUF Finale for ‘yeah, but…’ moments in UFC title fight history.
Say what you will about Matt Serra’s victory over GSP, but there was no doubt about why he won that belt. Somehow, inexplicably, even Carla Esparza beating Rose Namajunas had more feel that Esparza was the champion of the moment. Mostly, I think because her win streak included victories over Alexa Grasso and Yan Xiaonan.
The actual win over ‘Thug Rose’ might have been comical and her downfall inevitable, but there was no denying that, for one shining moment, she was the clear top contender who went through the right fights to be there.
Still in Ronda Rousey recovery mode
Pennington went on a hell of a win streak herself to get to UFC gold, but even in a division as paper thin as women’s bantamweight Ketlen Vieira’s the only really relevant win on the path. A little unfair, to be sure, given that Pannie Kianzad and Macy Chiasson are still ranked. It’s also the price of a division that has never really recovered from the end of the Ronda Rousey era—which Amanda Nunes extended.
The women who made up those prime years—Holly Holm, Nunes, Miesha Tate—are no longer near their prime, if they’re even competing at all. And unfortunately for fans, they haven’t been replaced by a following wave of talent. There doesn’t seem to be a next generation of elite performers who can clearly stand above their peers, either at the top of the UFC, or at the bottom of the division starting their climb. A ton of competitive fights, but no outliers to define greatness.
In that pack, Pennington has been the lucky one. Too tough to get finished by any but the best, and busy enough to win six decisions in her last eight fights—with one submission win and a controversial loss to Holm as well. For an athlete that was barely treading above .500 a few years back, it’s a remarkable testament to her heart and determination. A reminder that there truly is great value in never giving up on a dream.
Context is key
And, if we’re being entirely honest, I wouldn’t automatically pick her to lose to most likely next contender (and former champion) Julianna Pena either. After all, Pena is still only three fights removed from getting handily out-grappled by then 36-year-old Muay Thai stylest Germaine de Randamie. It could happen again.
That alone probably means that Pennington doesn’t deserve the mantel of ‘least dominant UFC champion’. Relative to her competition, she’s right in the thick of things. Moreso than Esparza was against Zhang, or Serra was in the inevitable GSP rematch—or more than Michael Bisping after he took his victory lap against Dan Henderson. Still, it’s a dubious honor when the owner of a UFC title still seems like they have so much left to prove.