Pennington: “I’m glad they didn’t let me quit”

UFC fighter Raquel Pennington sparked a national conversation when her coaches convinced her to return to the octagon after she said she was “done.” But she was “glad they didn’t let me quit,” she told TMZ.

After four rounds Saturday against bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes at UFC 224, the 29-year-old Colorado native turned to her coaches outside the cage and said: “I’m done. I want to be done.”

In response, she was told: “No, no, no. Let’s power through this. Let’s believe.”

Pennington (9-6) said she would have felt worse if they had thrown in the towel.

“If my coaches would have let me give up on myself at the end of that fourth round because my frustration was so high, I would have been more devastated after that and looked back on it 10 years from now and been more frustrated with myself,” she told TMZ.

The fight ended midway through the fifth round as Nunes (16-4) rode Pennington’s back and unleashed a bevy of elbows and punches on her opponent’s bloody face, forcing a TKO victory.

“My coaches were beating themselves up and they were like, ‘Let me ask you, if we would’ve thrown in the towel or let you give up on yourself, would that have been the right answer?’ ” she said. “I know they have my best interest at heart and I told them ‘No.’ ”

She added: “If I truly wanted out of there, I could have turned around and waved off the fight. I could have turned around and tapped out on the mat. I told my coaches, ‘I just needed the push from you guys.’ ”