After the fourth round of her championship fight with Amanda Nunes, Raquel Pennington was a mess. Her shin and calf were dappled with bruising, a bruise was creeping up her cheek to her eye, and her nose had been pounded into a shape like a swollen pear. “I’m done,” she said. “I want to be done.”
“No, no, no, no,” said her coach, Jason Kutz. “Let’s power through this. Let’s believe. Change your mindset. Change your mindset. Let’s just throw everything we got. We’ll recover later. Throw everything we got.”
A few minutes later, Pennington was face first on the floor.