- Julianna Pena is pushing for Amanda Nunes to return and face her for the third time
- “The Venezuelan Vixen” doesn’t recognize Kayla Harrison’s skill but would agree to fight her if “Lioness” refused to return
Julianna Pena prioritizes a third fight with Amanda Nunes and wasn’t impressed by how Kayla Harrison’s UFC 307 performance. However, “The Venezuelan Vixen” would take on Harrison as second option if Nunes declines.
Pena still wants to settle the score with Nunes
Despite the controversial result, Pena still managed to reclaim the bantamweight title after securing a split decision victory over Raquel Pennington at UFC 307. Unsurprisingly, she reiterated her desire to settle the score with Nunes in a trilogy match after going 1-1 in their first two fights.
“When I saw Amanda retire that day, I was sitting cageside, and I was booing because I didn’t believe she was truly done,” Peña said at her post-UFC 307 presser. “You hear Dana White saying that he thinks she retired too early, and then you watch her and I think she’s just twiddling her thumbs and saying, ‘What am I doing? I’m bored. Who am I if I’m not fighting in the UFC?’”
“I truly do not believe she’s done. She retired too early. I think that she’s looking for something to do. That, to me, is the biggest fight in women’s mixed martial arts history because we’re 1-1,” Peña said. “My fight against her was so dominant, I made her tap. Our second time, I ran out of time. I lost a decision handily, fine. No problem. But it would be nice to put it to bed once and for all and get that trilogy fight that she ran away from,” she added.
Pena didn’t like Kayla’s performance but isn’t closing the door for a potential bout
Pena also downplayed Harrison’s performance against Ketlen Vieira which saw the former PFL champion winning via unanimous decision. For “The Venezuelan Vixen,” Harrison underdelivered but she would be down for a possible matchup with Kayla should Nunes decide to duck her.
“To be honest, I’ll tell you, I was warming up and focusing on my own fight,” Peña said when asked about Harrison’s performance. “But, with that being said, I had my coaches there watching the fight [and] kind of giving me the 4-1-1 on what was going down. We’re not impressed. She said she was gonna put an elbow through her skull, and she was gonna do all this damage. Like, the girl [Vieira] didn’t have a scratch on her. It was boring, and she didn’t do anything that jumped off the pages like, ‘Ooh, the boogeyman.’ You know what I mean? So I was definitely, especially hearing from my team, not impressed.”
“If Amanda cowers away, again, and does not come back and fight me then yes,” she added. “Kayla brings a lot of eyeballs and a lot of attention to the sport and I love that.”
Prior to UFC 307, Pena and Harrison already had their fair share of verbal exchanges. With Pena now back in her throne, a showdown with Harrison is likely to happen, considering how focused Kayla is in facing only the best in the UFC.
On the other hand, it will also depend on what Nunes would do now that Pena remains eager to pull her back in from retirement.
Watch Pena talk to the media at UFC 307 presser below:
