Dana White isn’t a doctor (and he probably didn’t spend the night at a Holiday Inn), but his diagnosis for The Ultimate Fighter 18’s Julianna Pena’s return isn’t a good one.
To recap, Pena had a devastating knee injury that somehow managed to tear her ACL, MCL, LCL, meniscus and hamstring. Yeah, it was that bad. Now White is saying Pena will be out for some time and needs to make some smarter decisions about with who and where she trains.
Michael Chiesa, another Ultimate Fighter winner who trains with Pena at Team “SikJitsu,” made sure he wasn’t going to get blamed for the incident.
Team SikJitsu coach Rick Little also didn’t take too kindly to White’s words.
Ariel Helwani is reporting that Pena may be the victim of her own enthusiasm, training three times a day and jumping into a training session without being prepared (likely without stretching or warming up).
It’s hard to imagine what occurred for someone to sustain this level of injury. Other fighters have had knee injuries from training and grappling, but I can’t remember anyone busting their leg up this bad in training. My initial guess would be she was caught in a knee bar or heel hook as those are the only grappling holds I can think of that would cause this type of damage.
The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for Pena, who was enjoying some measure of fame and success after running through the competition on The Ultimate Fighter. It’s also bad news for the UFC as they had a bona fide star in the making, and women’s MMA popularity is at an all-time high.
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