Mike Malott vs. Neil Magny Blamed For Raquel Pennington's Safety First Approach In 'Boring' UFC 297 Co-Main Event: 'I Just Learned My Lesson Right There'

Former Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Josh Thomson recently provided an interesting take on Raquel Pennington vs. Mayra Bueno Silva. 

In the semi-main of UFC 297, the two women's bantamweights duked it out to get their hands on the vacant 135lbs gold. After five rounds of slow-paced combat, Pennington won the belt via unanimous decision. 

The fight was widely panned for being a relatively uneventful affair. It followed a considerably more lively clash between Mike Malott and Neil Magny. Considered a hot prospect heading into the fight, Malott largely dominated before a fatal error in the third round led to Magny besting him via TKO. 

"She Watches Mike Malott Lose" - Josh Thomson On Raquel Pennington

In a recent episode of the Weighing In podcast, 'The Punk' theorized that Malott's catastrophic defeat might've had a major influence on Pennington's overly safe, grounded strategy. 

"I'm gonna blame a little bit of the Neil Magny and Mike Mallott fight on the Raquel Pennington and Buena Silva fight being boring," Thomson revealed. "You wanna know why? Because Raquel Pennington, like you just said, had dominant top positions, and Mike Malott took those chances, got reversed, and got finished in the third round. She's in the fifth round or whatever in mount, going 'Four- two-and-a-half more minutes and I'm the champ.' She's not doing s**t to leave that position."

Thomson went on to point out that Malott was considered a hot prospect heading into the clash. His surprise loss has hampered his rising star stock, and Pennington might have learned to not take such dangerous risks from seeing his fall. 

"As she's ready to walk out, she watches Mike Malott lose in his home country in front of all of his fans, and the opportunity to be the new star for Canada gone," Thomson said. "Whole thing is gone now, and Raquel Pennington is like 'Nah, I just learned my lesson right there, I'm not doing anything.'"