Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) held a pre-fight press conference on Tuesday (March 20) to help promote the upcoming UFC 224 pay-per-view (PPV) event on May 12 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In attendance were event headliners Amanda Nunes and Raquel Pennington, who will collide for the 135-pound strap “Lioness” usurped from Miesha Tate, then defended against Ronda Rousey and Valentina Shevchenko.
Just don’t mention the C-word.
“I think I’ve definitely earned this spot and I think that fight deserved to be mine,” Pennington said earlier this week. “So the fact that they’re just wanting to see a superfight really pissed me off, given the fact that Cyborg’s in a completely different division and then you’re trying to take the champion from our division and create this huge superfight.”
Not that she would turn it down in victory.
Joining them on the dais was former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida, set to lock horns with fellow ex-titleholder Vitor Belfort in the UFC 224 co-main event. “The Phenom” was conspicuously absent from yesterday’s proceedings.
“I’m happy this fight will happen in Brazil and my opponent, Vitor Belfort, will be having his last UFC fight, so very respectfully, we’ll do our best to gift you with a good fight,” Machida wrote on Instagram.
We shall see.
To see the entire UFC 224 fight card and line up click here.
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