Aisling Daly seems to have proven that the luck of the Irish is a real phenomenom. Before her preliminary fight, Daly got so tired and nervous that she was sick, as a result she met with Dana to make sure she was ok to go on and compete and the fighter asked the UFC head honcho if the girls could all watch the Dublin fight card at the house. Her request was acquiesced to with a large smile on White’s face and it turned into a real blessing for the Irish lady. Aisling not only got pumped by watching many of her teammates fight, and win, on the card but one of them also gave her a shoutout on air. This week, she is set to face former Invicta FC Atomweight – 105lb – Champion Jessica Penne, is it coincidence, luck or a weird star alignment that makes another one of her teammates, the most famous, Notorious Conor McGregor drop by the house? Daly is definitely a loner in the house, by her own choosing, so seeing a familiar face is definitely helpful to her.
TUF 20 Episode 10 Recap
Both fighters have laid low in the house, staying away from the drama going on with the other women but, in the gym, Aisling does get a bit affected by the fact that her team Pettis coaches seem to work closer with Jessica than with her. She does try to calm herself down from this situation by reminding herself of the situation she is in; partaking, and living, in a competition where she is placed in a team but she keeps it clear that her team are the guys she trains with back in Ireland.
Penne also claims to be a loner but, while Daly seems to be able to isolate herself in her own head even in a room full of people, Jessica would rather have physical solitude to detach herself from the world and people around her. She tries to ignore her teammate Justine Kish, her closest friend in the house, who wants to help distract her ignorant of the fact that Penne would rather be left to herself. Jessica is unable to express that need to her friend and, instead, gets annoyed and threatens to knee her in the head.
As the two fighters make their way to the octagon, and in fact throughout the fight, the gym is eerily quiet. An observation of extreme tension within the group that McGregor made when he met team Pettis is once again evident. The few cheers that can be heard however, are for Jessica Penne.
The first round starts with Aisling literally marching towards Penne but, as Jessica attempts to take her opponent down and is unable to, the women end up in the corner of the cage and remain there for the large majority of the round, the only exception being a very short lapse back to the middle towards the end of the round. Penne was poked in the eye early on in the first and it is unclear whether it was accidental or payback that Daly claims she poked as the bell rang the end of the round.
In the second, Daly trips Penne against the cage but only throws a soccer kick at the fighter’s thigh instead of following her to the ground. Jessica immidiately shot for a takedown of her own as she got back up and ended up getting Aisling back as she defended it, Daly then flipped her opponent over her shoulder from that position to put her back to the mat once again. And again she did not try to capitalize on her takedown. As Aisling took Jessica to the ground for a third time she finally followed her to try and advance her likelyhood of a win but, unfortunately, neither fighter was able to do much. The third ended after multiple opportunities missed on both side to go to the mat as well as Daly eating huge bombs from Penne as she swung for the American herself. The judges then decided to call a third round.
Jessica shone in the third round as the women finally worked their jiujitsu against each other, both brown belts, the best positions went back and forth but it was Penne who tried to triangle Daly and, although unable to, she kept a huge pressure on her as Aisling maneuvered herself expertly to try to gain a good position on her opponent. Penne managed to stay in half guard throughout and took every chance to punch Daly. Using the cage, Aisling was able to flip them both over and was in mount as she got to her feet and, Jessica following her, Daly tried to latch on a guillotine. The submission was a good attempt but unsuscessful. Moving back to the middle of the octagon Daly tried to take Penne down and the remainder of the round was spent with Jessica defending it.
In a close decision win, Jessica Penne won the bout and advanced to the semi-finals.
Next room is the final pre-taped episode with the two remaining fights taking place. First Carla Esparza takes on her house nemesis Tecia Torres and then Joanne Calderwood will face off against the only team Melendez fighter left standing; Rose Namajunas.
