| UFC 224: Nunes vs. Pennington | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC 224: Nunes vs. Pennington | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | May 12, 2018 (2018-05-12) | |||
| Venue | Jeunesse Arena | |||
| City | Rio de Janeiro,Brazil | |||
| Attendance | 10,696[1] | |||
| Buyrate | 85,000[2] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC 224: Nunes vs. Pennington was amixed martial arts event produced by theUltimate Fighting Championship that was held on May 12, 2018, at theJeunesse Arena inRio de Janeiro,Brazil.[3]
The UFC was initially targeting aUFC Women's Featherweight Championship bout between the current championCris Cyborg and the currentUFC Women's Bantamweight ChampionAmanda Nunes to take place at this event and potentially serve as the headliner.[3] However, Cyborg was instead scheduled for a title defense atUFC 222 in March, and the plans were scrapped. In turn, it was announced on February 23 thatRaquel Pennington would instead face Nunes for the bantamweight title.[4]
A light heavyweight bout between formerUFC Light Heavyweight Championship title challengersVolkan Oezdemir andGlover Teixeira was briefly linked to take place at the event.[5] However, Oezdemir was pulled from that pairing in favor of a matchup with formerUFC Light Heavyweight ChampionMaurício Rua the following week atUFC Fight Night: Maia vs. Usman.[6]
At the weigh-ins,Mackenzie Dern weighed in at 123 pounds, seven pounds over the strawweight non-title fight upper limit of 116 pounds. As a result, the bout proceeded at catchweight, and Dern was fined 30% of her purse which went to her opponentAmanda Cooper.[7]
| Main Card | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | ||||
| Women's Bantamweight | Amanda Nunes (c) | def. | Raquel Pennington | TKO (punches) | 5 | 2:36 | [a] | |
| Middleweight | Kelvin Gastelum | def. | Ronaldo Souza | Decision (split) (29–28, 28–29, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | ||
| Catchweight (123 lb) | Mackenzie Dern | def. | Amanda Cooper | Submission (rear naked choke) | 1 | 2:27 | ||
| Bantamweight | John Lineker | def. | Brian Kelleher | KO (punch) | 3 | 3:43 | ||
| Middleweight | Lyoto Machida | def. | Vitor Belfort | KO (front kick) | 2 | 1:00 | ||
| Preliminary Card (FX) | ||||||||
| Middleweight | Cezar Ferreira | def. | Karl Roberson | Technical Submission (arm-triangle choke) | 1 | 4:45 | ||
| Heavyweight | Aleksei Oleinik | def. | Júnior Albini | Submission (Ezekiel choke) | 1 | 1:45 | ||
| Lightweight | Davi Ramos | def. | Nick Hein | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 1 | 4:15 | ||
| Welterweight | Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos | def. | Sean Strickland | KO (spinning wheel kick and punches) | 1 | 3:40 | ||
| Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass) | ||||||||
| Welterweight | Warlley Alves | def. | Sultan Aliev | TKO (doctor stoppage) | 2 | 5:00 | ||
| Middleweight | Jack Hermansson | def. | Thales Leites | TKO (punches) | 3 | 2:10 | ||
| Welterweight | Ramazan Emeev | def. | Alberto Mina | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | ||
| Middleweight | Markus Perez | def. | James Bochnovic | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 1 | 4:28 | ||
The following fighters were awarded $50,000 bonuses:[9]
This event tied the record, withUFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Bisping,UFC 281 andUFC Fight Night: Imavov vs. Borralho for havingthe most finishes on a single modern UFC card with 11 finishes.[10]
