Raquel Pennington Told What To Do To Bridge 'Night & Day' Gap With Julianna Peña: 'If You Want To Be Champion For A Long Time...'

Josh Thomson recently shared some essential advice for Raquel Pennington. 

At UFC 297, Pennington became the new UFC women's bantamweight champion with a unanimous decision victory over Mayra Bueno Silva. Former champ Julianna Peña is expected to be Pennington's first challenger later this year, with "Rocky" herself recently expressing a keen interest in doing battle with "The Venezuelan Vixen."

On a recent episode of the WEIGHING IN podcast, Thomson suggested that while Pennington could get the job done on the feet, her grappling is simply nowhere near Peña's level. Furthermore, Pennington is also likely going to be outmatched when it comes to cardio as well. 

"Julianna Peña waiting around, going to probably be next I think, I mean, if she can come back from injury and be healthy," Thomson said. "I think on the feet, 'Rocky' has a good chance of knocking her out, but on the ground it's night and day. Plus, not only night and day on the ground, but also just cardio-wise, night and day."

'You Need To Step Your Game Up' - Josh Thomson On Raquel Pennington

During the same episode, "The Punk" suggested that Pennington should looking into hiring both a nutritionist and a conditioning coach to up her game as champion. 

Thomson used the example of the legendary Frank Shamrock, who dominated the opposition in the early days of the UFC thanks to his elite-level cardio. Shamrock's gruelling approach to fight conditioning permanently altered MMA and approaches to training for it as a whole. 

"Raquel Pennington needs to hire a nutritionist, that's one," Thomson said. "Two is she needs to hire someone to actually run her conditioning. Not herself, not a jiu-jitsu coach, not your boxing coach, a real conditioning coach. If you want to be the champion for a long time you need to step your game up. The levels of which the game changed in the sport of MMA was when Frank Shamrock found a way to do cardio with Maurice Smith and Javier Mendez, and the way that he weaponized his cardio, it changed the game of MMA."