UFC bantamweight champion Julianna Peña is in an odd spot coming in as a 6-to-1 underdog to challenger Kayla Harrison at UFC 316 on Saturday night.
“It was told to me that I’m a six-to-one underdog. Being a six-to-one underdog as a champion is very disrespectful, number one,” Peña told Cageside Press at her media day scrum on Wednesday.
“Number two, everybody’s counting out, you know? Of six people only one of them thinks that I’m going to win the fight. Since you think I’m going to lose in five seconds and you think that I’m already out of this fight then I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
It’s odd for Peña (11-5) to be that much of an underdog as champion, but also have a mindset that she has nothing to lose. The title, the status, her spot in the division are all up for grabs.
Still, if Vegas really believes she’s that much of an underdog, maybe she has a point.
“I’m obsessed with the process not so much concerned about the outcome. She is in a position where she has to, she should, and you better, and it’s already done. Those are the kinds of limits that she’s putting on herself,” Peña said of her opponent at UFC 316.
“The reality is that when you put that much pressure on yourself, and when you’re so focused on ‘you have to beat her in 10 seconds’ and it doesn’t happen, that can kind of play into your mentality and the way that you fight.”
“When you work so hard, and I’ve been fighting for the promotion since 2013, when you work so hard to get to climb the mountain to UFC gold, and you’re finally at the top of the heap, this is what comes with that territory,” she said.
“I have an opportunity, I have an obligation as UFC champion, to promote my fight and to get people interested in watching me fight. These are the opportunities that I was fighting so hard for. It’s something that comes very naturally for me because this is what I’ve been building towards in my career my entire life.”
Harrison has been on a one-way road to the title since entering the UFC, and hasn’t been quiet about wanting a matchup with Peña.
“She said it’s going to be a brawl I guess I’ll give her what she wants,” she said.
“No, I see the fight playing out with me getting my hand raised. I don’t know how, I don’t know when, I just know that I’m very dangerous everywhere.”
The biggest fight since her bouts against MMA legend Amanda Nunes is upon her at UFC 316 on Saturday night. Peña might be the champ, but she’s definitely feeling the disrespect of the odds going into it.
“Everybody’s already counting me out,” she said.
“When you put me in a position of nothing to lose and everything to gain, that makes me a very dangerous woman.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Julianna Peña above. She defends her title against Kayla Harrison at UFC 316 on Saturday night.
