Wells: I don’t wish to throw the label of a “theft” round evenly, particularly in a battle swayed by one spherical. Nonetheless, on this case, I consider it’s applicable.
I don’t perceive scoring the primary spherical for Peña, even when she did land the next putting whole. The distinction in energy was clearly in Pennington’s favor. In equity to the official judges, I have to contemplate they solely have one perspective from cageside. Maybe the viewing angle of Sal D’Amato and Mike Bell made it seem Peña was touchdown the simpler strikes. Sadly, that wasn’t the case.
What made this end result even more durable to swallow was the actual fact the incoming champion, Pennington, closed out the battle in such a decisive method within the championship rounds. She scored essentially the most important second of the battle with the Spherical 4 knockdown after which poured on the stress in Spherical 5 to make sure she completed robust whereas Peña appeared fatigued.
Permit me to say the factor: “If we had been utilizing PRIDE’s scoring system …”
For those who’ve been across the sport lengthy sufficient, you know the way that sentence ends. Credit score to Peña for toughing it out and securing a few stable rounds within the battle, however Pennington ought to nonetheless be the UFC girls’s bantamweight champion right this moment.
Wells’ general rating: 48-47 Pennington
Hannoun: All of it comes all the way down to Spherical 1, which was very shut. Do you depend Peña’s quantity or the affect of Pennington’s strikes? Pennington’s strikes positively had extra affect, however after rewatching the battle, Peña was the busier fighter who landed extra.
Rounds 2 and three had been clearly Peña’s for her floor management, with Pennington taking Spherical 4 with ease after outstriking her and touchdown a giant knockdown. Pennington additionally outlanded Peña in Spherical 5 and was capable of harm her once more.
With Spherical 1 being so shut, this battle positively doesn’t scream theft. All of it is dependent upon whether or not you assume Pennington’s pictures warrant extra weight than Peña’s quantity, which might be completely comprehensible as Pennington had the a lot better moments on the toes. I simply assume Peña did higher work in Spherical 1, which is why I gave her the battle. She outstruck Pennington general within the battle, landed two takedowns to none, and had extra management time. The visible of Pennington’s robust end had me considering she gained the battle on the primary watch, however in a round-by-round scoring system, Peña did simply sufficient.
Hannoun’s rating: 48-47 Peña
King: Upon second watch, this was a better battle than I believed the primary time round – however solely ever so barely.
It’s no secret the scoring actually got here all the way down to the way you considered Spherical 1. Peña could have landed extra, however Pennington clearly landed the 2 most impactful – and most significantly – the one damaging strikes of the spherical.
It was shut and there may be an inherent ingredient of subjectiveness that comes with the trade fee of extra populous, much less damaging strikes towards much less populous, extra damaging strikes. However for me, Peña’s Spherical 1 strikes didn’t seem to do any injury in any respect.
It stinks for Pennington. I feel it was the fallacious choice. However in the end, I’m unsure I’d name it a theft.
King’s rating: 48-47 Pennington
