The 30th season of The Ultimate Fighter is five days away, and the trash talk has started between bantamweight Julianna Pena and former champion Amanda Nunes.
Mental Edge
In a recent interview with Morning Kombat, Pena said she has always had the mental edge over Nunes, especially now that she has spent several weeks with her filming the new season of TUF.
“I think I’ve always had the mental edge when it comes to Amanda. I’ve been calling out this fight for the last five years and she hasn’t wanted to fight me. She’s always made every excuse, like me not making myself worthy for her, or ‘Oh, I’m gonna fight Ronda instead.’ Just finding a way to get out of every fight that we have,” Pena said. “So, you know, obviously, what I feel and what I say and how I approach things bothers her because you know, she’s made that very clear.”
Diva?
Pena would not give much away when it came to the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, but she did say Nunes is much more high maintenance than expected.
“She’s a little bit more high maintenance than I had originally thought. You’ll definitely see what I mean,” Pena said. “I thought that I really was high maintenance, like the most high maintenance, like no one gets more high maintenance than me. Like, I’m a diva. And then like, I kind of experienced the things that Amanda was -my goodness, wow, I didn’t think that. I think I’ll probably be the same throughout, nothing really is going to faze me too much in terms of being more high maintenance or not. But that was just one thing that surprised me about her.”
While finding out Nunes was much more high maintenance was a shock to Pena and the interactions she had with her team, the most important thing about the upcoming season of TUF was the fighters and their stories.
“But I’ll say that, it was very interesting seeing, her and her team and their interactions and their dynamic on a daily basis… But what’s more interesting to me is the stories of the fighters, the journeys that these guys have been on and how incredible of fighters that they are, and just the amount of talent that I had under my wing. I can’t wait for you guys to be introduced to them and to see the next crop of upcoming UFC fighters.”
The Ultimate Fighter season 30 premieres on May 3, exclusively on ESPN +. The rematch between Pena and Nunes is expected to occur after the show this summer.
