Holly Holm: 2.
On Saturday night, Holm (13-5 MMA, 6-5 UFC) handed Pennington (10-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC) her second loss in as many times they’ve faced off. After 15 minutes, Holm earned a unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27) from the judges.
The women’s bantamweight bout was the UFC 246 co-main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.
The pair first collided at UFC 184 in February 2015. That night, Holm edged out a split decision over Pennington.
Throughout the first two rounds, the fight was largely monotonous. After some point-fighting from a distance, the two would clinch against the cage.
Grinding against the fence, Holm was able to maintain the majority of position. The third round was fought largely from a distance but still had its fair share of ugly clinch fighting – much to the crowd’s disapproval.
With the victory, Holm rebounds from a knockout loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 239 in July. The former UFC champ has won three of her last five.
As for Pennington, the 31-year-old fighter has dropped three out of four. All three defeats came to current or former UFC champions, with Pennington also losing fights to Nunes and Germaine de Randamie.
Up-to-the-minute UFC 246 results include:
- Holly Holm def. Raquel Pennington via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
- Aleksei Oleinik def. Maurice Greene via submission (armbar) – Round 2, 4:38
- Brian Kelleher def. Ode Osbourne via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 2:45
- Diego Ferreira def. Anthony Pettis via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 1:46
- Roxanne Modafferi def. Maycee Barber via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
- Sodiq Yusuff def. Andre Fili via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Askar Askarov def. Tim Elliott via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
- Drew Dober def. Nasrat Haqparast via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 1:10
- Aleksa Camur def. Justin Ledet via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
- Sabina Mazo def. J.J. Aldrich via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
