Pennington (photo via UFC)

By FCF Staff

Since UFC 224, the corner of Raquel Pennington has been under fire for not agreeing with her call to stop her bout with Amanda Nunes. But, the bantamweight contender is defending her coaches decision, following her stoppage loss.

After the fourth round of the card’s headliner concluded, Pennington was heard telling her corner that she was “done”. But, her coaches implored her to continue, and noted she could recover after the bout. In round five, Pennington was punished more by Nunes and the bout was stopped by the referee.

Pennington appeared on the latest “MMA Hour”, and the fighter reported she incurred a leg injury from a Nunes leg kick, not long into the contest. By the conclusion of round four, the injury had worsened, and that’s when she made her comments about being “done”. In addition, Pennington had this to say about her corner’s response (quote via MMA Fighting):

“I’m actually proud of my coaches,” Pennington said. “I know a lot of people are going against what they said and thinking all this different stuff, and it’s easy to judge, but you never know what’s happening in that moment. At the end of the day, my coaches know me best. They know my toughness and they know what I can handle, and I trust my coaches with everything that I have, and I know they wouldn’t put me in a situation that I can’t handle. I was going through a moment where I was obviously frustrated because of the facts with my legs. I was scared to step in and actually let my hands go, because the minute I would start to close the distance, Amanda would attack the leg.

“Those initial kicks really got me to a point where I started to break for a second, and the minute that I turned around and told my coaches that, and then I actually turned around and looked at my head coach and looked him in the eyes, I knew it still had it within me.”

Pennington does not yet know the extent of her injuries, following the loss. UFC 224 took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.