Vancouver, Canada — There is going to be one very interested, invested onlooker at UFC 289 on Saturday night.
Julianna Pena was supposed to be the woman standing across from Amanda Nunes at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was Pena, from nearby Spokane, Washington, whose name was meant to be on the marquee.
Then a rib injury took her out of the fight, affording Irene Aldana the chance to become the UFC’s latest Mexican champion in a year that has already crowned three of them.
Fans seemed content with that — Aldana is popular, Mexico is hot, and the trilogy fight between Nunes and Pena was labelled unearned and unwarranted by many. Pena, however, is not content. She’s hot in pursuit of that third fight, crossing the border into Canada to appear at Friday’s UFC 30th Anniversary Q&A session.
Much like a lion stalks her prey, Pena is stalking a “Lioness” in Nunes. And for one night only, she’ll be rooting for her rival.
“I said on Ariel [Helwani’s show] that she was one foot out the door already and that she was already planning her retirement and going off into the sunset. And not if I have my way. I’m not done with her,” Pena said on Friday. “This is unfinished business and I’m actually here to make sure that from 9 to 10PM tomorrow on Saturday, only from 9 to 10PM on Saturday — not 10:01 — from 9 to 10, I will be rooting for Amanda Nunes. I will be her one biggest fan in the world and after that, you’re going to see the biggest turncoat you’ve ever seen.”
Earlier, Pena had scoffed at Nunes’ media day claim that she could kick Julianna’s ass whenever she wanted.
“It cracks me up honestly. I think I saw in a clip, she said ‘I can kick her ass anytime I want,’” Pena recalled. “Except for the time that you couldn’t and that it really counted. So, I really don’t know what she’s talking about. As far as I’m concerned, we’re 1-1, and I actually have a leg up on her because I was not stopped, I was not finished, I was never down and out.”
“Like Rocky said, it’s not about how many times you get hit, it’s about how many times you get hit and keep coming forward, and she did not stop me. I was able to stop her, I was able to put her in the hospital. And nobody else can say that.”
Pena also took umbrage with Nunes not waiting for her to heal up from the rib injury that forced her off the UFC 289 card. Especially when Pena had previously waited on the champ. “She pulled out of the fight the first time, and obviously we waited six more months until that fight could occur. I needed six weeks, maybe eight for the grappling, but either way, I messed up. I have a lot of integrity, a lot of honesty, and right when I got injured I called the machine [the UFC] and I told them ‘hey I broke a rib, I’m out.'”
“I should have waited for Irene and Rocky to fight, and then they would have not have been able to find a replacement on two weeks’ notice for Amanda, so that she wouldn’t have had any choice but to fight me and push the fight out later.”
Pena’s integrity kept her from going that route, she reiterated. “It’s a bummer that I lost that fight, but like I’ve said a million times, we’re 1-1, there’s unfinished business there, and yes from the hours of 9 to 10, I will be Amanda’s biggest fan.”
Watch the full UFC 30th Anniversary Q&A in Vancouver, B.C. above.
