Salt Lake City — Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Julianna Pena returns to action at UFC 307, paired up with Raquel Pennington in the night’s co-main event.
It’s an opportunity to become a two-time champ for Pena (11-5), who was supposed to face Amanda Nunes at UFC 289 last year only to be forced out due to injury. Nunes would retire after defeating Irene Aldana, eliminating the possibility of a trilogy fight between the pair. Pennington would later claim the vacant 135lb title at UFC 297 this past January.
With her history of injuries, fight camp for Pena is more about focusing on herself and her body than any specific opponent, she explained during Wednesday’s UFC 307 media day. And with how long she’s been tied to a title fight, the past year and a half has felt like one big, long camp.
“The hardest part for me in all of my preparation is never my opponent. It’s always myself and making sure that my body is healthy willing and able to carry me through the fight,” stated Pena. “So yes, its always felt like one big fight in order to get to the actual fight, and it’s not necessarily about anything else other than is my body willing and able, and is it going to carry me through to get inside the octagon.”
Asked whether she felt Pennington, who was her roommate on The Ultimate Fighter 18, was someone she felt might be champ some day, Pena said only that “I have to be honest, and I don’t mean this in any sort of disrespectful way, but I’ve never thought about Raquel and her fighting and what she’s doing and how her career’s going, and the trajectory of how she’s going. It’s always just been a focus on me and myself and what I know I can do.”
That said, she followed up by admitting that she didn’t expect Pennington to be the one to welcome her back to action. “No, to answer your question, no I did not. However, I will say that she has earned the opportunity, and she did everything that she needed to do in order to get gold,” said Pena. “To me, it has always felt almost like she was fighting for an interim [title], just because I fell out with Amanda and I wasn’t able to make that fight. Let me also piggyback that with, it was my fault. It was my fault that I wasn’t able to fight with Amanda and it was my fault that she was fighting for an interim, so the only person that I can blame is myself.”
Pennington has stated that Pena has avoided fighting her over the years, something Pena herself would dispute. “No and that’s the part that doesn’t make sense. We’ve never had a fight, they’ve never offered my Raquel. They never said to fight Raquel. Ever since I won The Ultimate Fighter, I have always been looking in front of my windshield, I’ve never been looking in my rearview mirror. So I’ve always been going up the ladder, and I haven’t been focusing too much on down the ladder.”
Later, she’d admit that their UFC 307 showdown was the biggest of her career, both in terms of the next fight always being the biggest, and the timing of it.
“I feel like especially at this day and age, the window of fighting for me narrows day by day by day. I’m not no spring chicken no more, I’m not 21 years old. But with that being said comes experience, comes a bit of wiseness (sic) in the game. I feel like every fight is the biggest fight of my life, but especially this one because I’m going for gold again, and you’re not going to get a hundred chances to fight for the belt.”
With Kayla Harrison looming, set to compete for a possible title shot earlier on the UFC 307 card, many are looking past Pennington vs. Pena. For Julianna Pena, however, Harrison is not what matters at the moment.
“My goal, my job is to be looking in front of my windshield right now, and Raquel is in front of my windshield right now. Kayla’s in the rearview mirror. Kayla has a job to do, and I have a job to do. I need to get my hand raised on Saturday night. When that happens, then we can talk about Kayla, but right now it’s all about me and Raquel Pennington.”
Pena would later claim that she wants the belt more than Pennington, and criticized “Rocky’s” reign as champion.
“Raquel has not been a good representation of the women’s bantamweight division. She has not promoted, she has said no to Embedded, she has constantly done everything that she can to avoid being the face of women’s MMA, and not being that big face that wants to promote and be that great representation of women’s MMA.”
And so Pena feels that “you’re showing me nothing, but you’re telling me everything by not being that person that is letting everybody know that you’re fighting. I want to be that person. That’s my role, and I can do it better. And that’s why I believe that I’m going to be able to seal the deal on Saturday night and be able to get that gold again.”
Watch the full UFC 307 media day appearance by Julianna Pena above.
