Over the course of the last several months, #5 ranked women’s bantamweight Julianna Pena has been very adamant about either getting a title fight with bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, or being the woman to welcome Ronda Rousey back to the Octagon. This week, it was announced that Rousey would be returning to the Octagon at UFC 207 on December 30th, where she will be given an immediate title shot against Amanda Nunes.
That didn’t sit too well with Pena, who has been on a tear of the women’s bantamweight division, going on a 4-fight win streak that saw her win ‘The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rousey vs. Team Tate’ back in 2013, before returning to the UFC in 2015 and going on a 3-fight win streak that most recently saw her defeat Cat Zingano at UFC 200.
Pena and Rousey have a feud that dates back to the show, where Rousey went off on Pena, stating that she wasn’t worthy of breathing the same air as her.
During a recent interview with MMAFighting after Rousey’s return was announced, Pena went off:
“It’s bullsh-t. That spoiled brat has gotten everything handed to her, and she’s getting everything handed to her again. It’s bullsh-t. I have no idea. Never in the history have I ever heard of somebody have a no-controversy brutal knockout, then quit the sport, and then comeback and get a title shot right away.”
“The girl is mentally weak and Amanda Nunes is going to f–king knock her out and expose her ass. She’s literally the worst fighter on the roster, and I can’t stomach the fact that I’m not getting the title shot. I don’t know how they conduct business over there, but they’re going to do what they want no matter what, so there is not really much I could do. Back to the drawing board I guess.”
Pena is so frustrated that she is willing to go as far as to leave the UFC over the situation:
“Maybe I’ll go fight for Combate [Americas] or something because it sounds like they want to pay me serious money and actually give me a belt right off the bat just like they did with Ronda in the UFC. They just handed Ronda a belt, and Combate will hand me a belt, so I don’t know, we’ll see how that goes.”
“It’s definitely something that I would consider, you know. It’s starting to become a fake toy belt [the UFC belt]. I fight for money, I’m a prize fighter. So if somebody else wants to give me more money, I’ll gladly sit down at the negotiating table and see what’s going on and what’s being offered.”