Miami — Merab Dvalishvili might have turned up at Friday’s UFC 316 press conference in Miami with a Shawn O’Malley doll in a baby carrier, but it wasn’t the main event pair who got into it.
In fact, Merab and O’Malley were mostly pleasant, with the bantamweight champ admitting that the doll was just a joke, and expecting a more motivated, improved O’Malley in their rematch this June.
No, it was the co-headlining pair, women’s bantamweight champion Julianna Pena and Kayla Harrison, who went at each other, verbally anyway.
Pena, not known for having the coolest of heads, fired the first shots, suggesting Harrison had ducked women’s MMA legend Cris Cyborg by leaving the PFL to sign on with the UFC. That didn’t exactly get the crowd on the champ’s side.
“I think at the end of the day it was very apparent that she was ducking Cris Cyborg in the PFL. I don’t know anyone that would pour that much money into one specific person like Donn Davis [PFL Founder] to have her as the face of his brand, only to have her not fulfill her contract with the PFL.”
“She was running from Cris Cyborg, everybody knows that, and of course because she had such a big name there she was able to jump the line in front of all these other women that have put in so much time and effort into making this bantamweight division great. So do I understand it? Of course. The machine in a money maker. If it don’t make money, it don’t make sense. At the end of the day, this fight makes sense and that’s why it’s being done.”
Harrison was quick to point out that not only was she not ducking anyone, she had come to the UFC to fight the best. “I’m not ducking anybody, I’m not running from anybody. I came to the UFC because it’s the best organization in the world. And according to that, you should be the best fighter in the world. And on June 7, we’re going to find out.”
There’s been clear animosity between the two bantamweights ever since Harrison arrived in the UFC, with talk of her being a future champ seemingly aggravating a fighter now on her second reign with the title. And that has Harrison reveling in the opportunity to get in the cage with her rival.
“I’m getting paid to have fun right now,” Harrison exclaimed. “I’m getting paid to put an elbow right through her skull.”
Pena would respond with digs about Harrison’s weight cut, questioning her ability to make the 135lb limit without the non-title grace pound. Then, there were comments about the quality of Harrison’s competition. “You’re fighting a bunch of grandmas that are ready for the freaking wheelchair.”
“First I’m ducking Cyborg, now I’m fighting Grandmas? Which is it?” Harrison shot back.
There’s no need for a complete trash talk rundown, but of note was that retired women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, considered the GOAT of women’s MMA and the woman who finished Cris Cyborg, was in attendance. It’s long been believed that a fight with Harrison might lure “The Lioness” out of retirement. UFC President and CEO Dana White believes she retired too soon, after walking away from the sport in 2023 following a win at UFC 289.
While Pena is 1-1 with Nunes, it’s the Harrison fight that would no doubt make dollars and sense for the UFC, to borrow Pena’s earlier line.
