Marion Reneau expected to eventually face Raquel Pennington

LAS VEGAS – Marion Reneau knew she’d cross paths with Raquel Pennington eventually, but it’s happening a bit sooner than expected.

Reneau (9-5-1 MMA, 5-4-1 UFC) faces former bantamweight title challenger Pennington on Saturday at UFC on ESPN 11 and will compete on her 43rd birthday.

She was initially scheduled to face Ketlen Vieira on May 9 in Brazil, but the event was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and she was given a different opponent at a different date. One she expected to meet down the line.

“I think this is a great fight and a great matchup,” Reneau told reporters Thursday in a virtual media day session. “If you look at both Raquel and I, we both match up fairly well. Both in the standing and I’d say on the ground as well so I think it’s gonna be an exciting fight. It was one that was bound to happen, it was something that we anticipated happening but it happened a lot sooner than we thought because I was supposed to fight Vieira before so this one happened a little bit sooner, no problem.”

Reneau is coming off back-to-back decision losses to Cat Zingano and Yana Kunitskaya.

But the skid is not unfamiliar territory for Reanau, who avoided a three-fight losing streak in 2016, when she stopped Milana Dudieva.

“Sur,e I didn’t like the decisions for my last fight and the fight before I lost but I don’t put pressure on myself,” Reneau said. “I have to move forward so it’s not something that I focus on. I’ve learnt that at an early age and it’s followed me to now.”

To hear more from Reneau, check out the video above.