UFC 307 will witness a married couple share the octagon, with one defending a championship belt.
Raquel Pennington defends her bantamweight title against Julianna Pena as part of UFC 307’s co-main event in Salt Lake City this Saturday.
Pennington beat Bueno Silva of Brazil to become the new bantamweight champion at UFC 297Getty
And her spouse, Tecia Pennington, fights on the same card earlier in the night.
“That was my idea. She hates that,” Raquel told MMA Junkie.
“When I first fought for the world title, it was my first fight as far being a mom and Tecia got to hold down the fort.
“Then she fought Mother’s Day weekend and I got to hold down the fort. So, now we came across a new challenge, both of us being in camp.
“We learnt the true definition of raising a kid truly does take a village.”
In November 2022, the American fighters revealed that Tecia was pregnant with their first child, one year into their marriage.
This came seven months after both women had fought at UFC 273 on the Alexander Volkanovski vs The Korean Zombie undercard.
Raquel was victorious over Aspen Ladd before ‘Thug’ lost out to Mackenzie Dern.
On Saturday, Tecia faces MMA veteran and former strawweight champion Carla Esparza, who is expected to retire after the bout.
Esparza won the belt against Rose Namajunas in May 2022 before dropping it to Zhang Weili, who remains the champ to date.
The Penningtons pictured in May 2022@raquel_pennington – instagram
Raquel, also known as ‘Rocky’, also confirmed that she will not corner her partner earlier in the night, as they ‘like to keep things separate’, but she will, obviously, be rooting for her from the locker rooms.
‘Rocky’ won the belt for the first time in her last bout against Marya Bueno Silva on the undercard of Sean Strickland vs Dricus Du Plessis in January 2024.
The title was up for grabs as Brazil’s Amanda Nunes, a former two-division champion, retired from the sport after she had defended her bantamweight belt against Irene Aldana.
UFC 307 also sees Alex Pereira defend his light heavyweight belt against Khalil Rountree Jr, in what will be the second title fight of the night.
Raquel’s opponent, Pena, produced arguably the biggest shock in the UFC when she submitted Nunes to win the bantamweight title in December 2021.
The moment was so big that UFC commentator Joe Rogan said right after Nunes had tapped that it was the biggest upset in the history of the sport.
Nunes would go on to reclaim the belt seven months later in a rematch at UFC 277, before retaining it against Aldana.
Now, Raquel, who has been involved with the UFC for over 10 years, has her first opportunity to defend the belt at 36 years of age.
Pena, meanwhile, is similarly experienced when compared to Pennington in the UFC but has far less fights.
She was meant to fight Nunes instead of Aldana in a trilogy fight on June 10 last year, but was forced to pull out due to a busted rib.
TalkSPORT.com has you covered for all things UFC 307, with the main event set to begin at 3am on Saturday night for UK fans.
