“The Venezuelan Vixen” was not impressed.
Julianna Pena became a two-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion at UFC 307 last night (Sat., Oct. 5, 2024) when she scored a very controversial split decision over Raquel Pennington from inside Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
While the fight ended up being better than expected, it’s clear that the mixed martial arts (MMA) world is just waiting for the winner to fight former two-time Olympic gold medallist Kayla Harrison to get the crack at whoever won.
As Harrison expected, Pena ignored the question during her in-cage interview with Joe Rogan and instead called out retired Amanda Nunes, who battered Pena to reclaim her title.
Watch the call-out (for a fight that will not happen) below:
What’s next for the bantamweight division #UFC307 pic.twitter.com/jCCf2tPQtg
— UFC (@ufc) October 6, 2024
During the UFC 307 post-fight press conference (watch here), Pena was asked about Harrison’s win over Ketlen Vieira earlier in the night.
“I’ll tell you, I was warming up and focusing on my own fight. But with that being said, I had my coaches there watching the fight and kind of giving me the 411 on what was going down. We’re not impressed,” Pena told the media. “She said she was gonna put her elbow through her skull, and she was gonna, you know, do all this damage. Like the girl didn’t have a scratch on her. It was boring, and she didn’t do anything that jumped off the page like, ooh, the boogeyman, you know what I mean. So I was definitely, you know, especially with hearing from my team, not impressed.”
Harrison did not steamroll Vieira like she did Holly Holm in her UFC debut, but she did get a clear win over someone who had only finished once in her career. Still, Pena thinks Harrison is a one-trick pony.
“I definitely think that at some point or another, you know, like Ronda [Rousey], when you figure out the one trick pony of being able to stuff a takedown, you realize that the fight is more competitive and more even than people want to give it credit for. So I think that once you stuff the takedown, you realize that you’re actually in a tougher fight than you thought you were. And I think that that’s kind of what played into her head tonight,” Pena concluded.
Whether Pena likes it or not, she’s fighting Harrison next, and she’ll find out if Harrison is a one-trick pony.
Nevertheless, “The Venezuelan Vixen” is now the second two-time UFC Women’s Bantamweight in UFC history, and we get to hear her yap for several months.
For complete UFC 307 results, coverage, and highlights, click HERE.