On Sunday 31st of July, UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Julianna Pena has a chance to prove her shocking win at UFC 269 over Amanda Nunes was not a fluke. The two will meet in the Octagon, with Nunes looking to regain the belt, and the title as the greatest female fighter of all time.
Nunes came into the first bout on a 12-fight winning streak that included victories over every woman to ever hold either the UFC featherweight or bantamweight title. That run had led to her being named the best fighter in the history of women's MMA. Pena was expected to be just another opponent on Nunes' incredible march. Pena proved to be much more than just an opponent when she dominated Nunes before scoring a second-round rear-naked choke.
Nunes has come out swinging before the fight, but many are confused why Pena has seemed interested in engaging in any trash talk.
In response, Peña told MMA Mania that she didn’t feel the need to rub salt in the wound after beating “The Lioness” in the octagon.
“All the other stuff that she said, like, oh, I didn’t s*** talk and I was trying to get people to want to like me or something like that, I’m like, no, I’ve done the show before so I kinda know how the production goes,” Peña said. “But with that being said, I already beat you. You hadn’t been submitted, you hadn’t been stopped, you had this title reign of the GOAT and you got embarrassed, and you got so frustrated that you fired your entire team. You quit your gym that you’d been at for 10 years. You had to go see a sport psychologist. Like, why kick a dog when it’s down? That’s just not my style, that’s not my character, and I already know how much it hurt her. I’m not trying to pour salt on the wounds. She wants me to burn the church down too, it’s like it’s good, you know what I mean? I already did my trash talking in the ring. There’s nothing really more for me to say.
“Not to mention if you watch the season, I’m killing her!” Peña continued. “They can’t string a couple wins together to save their lives, she’s just literally not winning on the show either. What more do you want me to say? I feel bad. Not to say I’m going to hold back by any means in the rematch but it’s just [that] I don’t want to be this cocky arrogant prick, that I’m just constantly poking you while you’re down. That’s just not who I am. Most people would be thankful but she wants me to razz her.”
Following the first eight episodes of TUF 30, Peña had the edge over Nunes in quarterfinal wins with five of her fighters advancing to the next round versus three for Nunes.
Another matter that Peña addressed is why her pre-fight approach to their fight is so different than how she’s handling the build to the rematch. Peña aggressively pursued a fight with Nunes, who was in the midst of a six-year undefeated run, but insists that she was more focused on promoting herself than bringing down her rival.
“She considers what I was doing or saying s*** talk but to me, I wasn’t,” Pena said. “I was legitimately telling my truth of everything that has happened to me in my career. When I said that she promised to fight me at UFC 200 and that this fight has been brewing for five years, like she might view that as crap talk but that’s legitimately what happened in my career when she said that she would fight me and then chose to fight somebody else and chose to fight somebody else and chose to fight somebody else, multiple times.
“That’s not me s*** talking, that’s just me bringing to light what has happened to me and my career. So she was saying that I was s*** talking but it was like everything I was saying was actually a fact and something that has been factual for me and my career and the way that it’s played out for me. So, I wasn’t talking s***, it was just my truth.”
In the co-main event, former flyweight champ Brandon Moreno will face Kai Kara-France for the interim 125-pound championship. Moreno lost the title in January via a close decision to Deiveson Figueiredo in their trilogy bout. Moreno holds a 2019 win over Kara-France that was part of his run to the championship.
Watch these powerhouses in action at the Official Home of UFC.