Raquel Pennington, Cortney Casey Victorious At UFC 202 In Las VegasBantamweight contender Raquel “Rocky” Pennington extended her winning streak to three with a hard-fought decision victory tonight at UFC 202: “Diaz vs McGregor” in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pennington defeated Elizabeth Phillips in a competitive back-and-forth matchup on tonight’s preliminary card.

In featured strawweight action tonight, Cortney “Cast Iron” Casey earned her second straight first-round finish in a span of just six weeks. Casey, who destroyed Cristina “Barbie” Stanciu this past month, picked up the biggest victory of her career by submitting Randa “Quiet Storm” Markos tonight.

 

Pennington (8-5-0) and Phillips (5-4-0) battled in the clinch throughout most of tonight’s fight. In round one, both women landed knees to the body in close and Pennington scored a crucial takedown in spite of Phillips blatantly grabbing the cage. Phillips stood and countered with a flying guillotine choke, but Pennington finished the round with a flurry of punches.

Phillips scored a takedown in the second round, but Pennington was active off of her back and she worked for a guillotine choke. The fight returned to the feet and Pennington fought off all of Phillips’s takedown attempts with knees and hammerfists. She slammed Pennington down to the mat late in the round and dropped punches from the top.

Pennington landed a nice one-two in the final round and she took Phillips down soon after. She landed punches on the ground and moved from mount to back control. Phillips defended against Pennington’s rear-naked choke attempts and eventually scrambled into top position. Pennington attacked from the bottom with an arm-triangle choke and a triangle choke. She stood and slammed Phillips down in the final minute of the bout.

All three judges scored the fight 30-27 for Pennington, who has now won three straight fights since suffering a close Split Decision loss to former UFC champion Holly “The Preacher’s Daughter” Holm.

Winner: Raquel Pennington by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) after three rounds. She improves to 8-5-0.

 

Casey (6-3-0) started strong tonight with hard leg kicks that got the attention of Markos (6-4-0), who closed the distance in search of a takedown. Casey initially shrugged her off, but Markos secured a slick throw takedown into the scarf hold position and she landed short left hands to Casey’s face. Casey scrambled free and took Markos’s back. She teed off with elbows and punches that forced Markos to roll over. When Markos swept into top position, Casey quickly locked on an armbar. She went belly-down with the hold and Markos was forced to verbally submit.

Tonight’s win was Casey’s second in short succession. She quickly stopped Stanciu at UFC Fight Night 91 on July 13th and was even more impressive in her victory over TUF 20 semi-finalist Markos.

Winner: Cortney Casey by Submission (Armbar) at 4:34 of round one. She improves to 6-3-0.

 

 

(Photo Credit: UFC)