The rivalry between Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena is far from over.
TUF 30
In fact, it looks like it will only get more heated from here. Both UFC Champions are currently front-runners to coach on the next season of reality TV show, ‘The Ultimate Fighter’. The duo hasn’t been deemed as official coaches yet, but that’s what the UFC is currently looking at.
The news would be first reported by Ariel Helwani.
Julianna Peña and Amanda Nunes are the front-runners to coach the next season of TUF, per sources.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 27, 2022
We’ve seen some great opposing coaches on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ over the years. Some, not so much. But hey, there’s been 29 seasons of the show, so there’s bound to be a few unclimactic misses. For Nunes vs. Pena, you can be the judge of that duo.
The First Meeting
The rivalry shared between the two is definitely there. New UFC Champ Pena would become ‘Rocky Balboa’ for one fateful night in Las Vegas where she defeated Nunes in an absolute upset. After years of dominance from Nunes, Pena would put a blemish on Nunes’ legendary title run.
She would choke out ‘The Lioness’ at UFC 269 last December. Shocking the world would be an understatement. The rematch is gonna be big, especially with a reality TV setting to back it up.
Rebound
Months removed from the defeat, Nunes is looking to bounce back. But, she’s making some major changes this time around. The UFC featherweight champ has left her long-time home at American Top Team to create a team of her own.
This new team of Nunes will aid her in this next season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, should she accept the role.
From TUF Champion To TUF Coach
Pena looks to prove that what happened on December 11th wasn’t a one-off. The UFC bantamweight queen wants to ‘talk the talk’ and ‘walk the walk’ just like she did the first time, perhaps even better.
Pena would do a LOT of talking pre-fight against Nunes. The confident challenger would talk trash to the champ-champ constantly. Luckily for her, she backed it up. We’ll see if the war of words continues on this next edition of The Ultimate Fighter.
Pena is also no stranger to ‘TUF’ as she won season 18 of the show as a contestant back in 2013. The first female TUF champion will likely return to where everything began for her.
