UFC women's bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes continues to track at becoming one of the best women's fighters in the world on Saturday night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when she takes on Raquel Pennington in the main event of UFC 224. The fight on its own should be enough to grab fight fans' attention, but the battle has even more intrigue given the friendship the two fighters share.
It's Nunes' second straight fight headlining a PPV after she won a unanimous decision over Valentina Shevchenko in September 2017. There's also the lingering discussion about Nunes taking on fellow Brazilian champion Cris "Cyborg" Justino in a superfight if she's successful against Pennington.
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Plus, we get the return of Kelvin Gastelum when he takes on middleweight veteran Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza. Gastelum is coming off a vicious first-round knockout of former middleweight champion Michael Bisping in November and looking to inch closer to his first ever title shot. Plus, it's the return of top women's strawweight prospect Mackenzie Dern when she takes on Amanda Cooper -- fresh off her debut victory in March.
Check out the rest of the card and fight order for Brazil below.
Favorite | Underdog | Weghtclass |
---|---|---|
Amanda Nunes (c) -600 | Raquel Pennington +400 | Women's bantamweight title |
Ronaldo Souza -150 | Kelvin Gastelum +120 | Middleweight |
Mackenzie Dern -235 | Amanda Cooper +185 | Women's strawweight |
John Lineker -250 | Brian Kelleher +195 | Bantamweight |
Lyoto Machida -260 | Vitor Belfort +200 | Middleweight |
Karl Roberson -155 | Cezar Ferreira +125 | Middleweight |
Junior Albini -140 | Aleksei Oleinik +110 | Heavyweight |
Davi Ramos -140 | Nick Hein +110 | Lightweight |
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos -135 | Sean Strickland +105 | Welterweight |
Warlley Alves -250 | Sultan Aliev +195 | Welterweight |
Jack Hermansson -160 | Thales Leites +130 | Middleweight |
Ramazan Emeev -200 | Alberto Mina +160 | Welterweight |
Markus Perez -285 | James Bochnovic +225 | Middleweight |