Bantamweight contender Raquel Pennington shares her scorecard for Nunes vs. Shevchenko

Last weekend, in the main event of UFC 215, women’s bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes stepped into the Octagon to defend her title against dangerous challenger Valentina Shevchenko. The bout was a rematch of a close 2016 fight, and just like that initial 2016 fight, it was incredibly competitive.

In the end, the judges gave the fight to Nunes by split decision. Not everyone, however, agreed with the decision. Many members of the MMA community – and Shevchenko herself – were quick to call the fight a robbery.

Yet in the opinion of top bantamweight contender Raquel Pennington, who could well be the next woman in line for Nunes, the judges got it right. Pennington shared her thoughts on the fight on the latest edition of The MMA Hour.

“It was a close fight but I would have to give it to Amanda, It went the way it was supposed to go, I guess. I don’t feel like either one of them went out there and did anything,” Pennington said on the show (h/t MMAMania.com).

“The highlights made the fight look a lot more exciting than what it really was.”

“I wasn’t impressed with either one of them. Their first fight was a lot different and if they had two more rounds (in first fight) Valentina could’ve won that fight. I expected a lot more of a performance on both ends and it just seemed that they were waiting for each other to react.”

“Amanda didn’t want to react, she stayed in front, though, but Valentina didn’t really react. I figured with the close fight of before that Valentina would come out and put on a big performance.”