Julianna Pena fires off on potential Amanda Nunes fight: “She knows she’s going to curl up in the fetal position”
If there were any questions over the next opponent for two-weight women’s champion Amanda Nunes, Julianna Pena has inserted herself at the top of the list of fight-ready contenders. Pena is most recently coming off a third-round submission victory over Sara McMann at UFC 257 in January, and she believes that as a winner in two of her last three fights, she’s next for Nunes at bantamweight.
There is certainly some searching being done for Nunes’ next top challenger at either bantamweight or featherweight, but Pena is taking the heated route in hopes of landing her title shot and went off on the reigning champion during an interview with Ariel Helwani of ESPN. It began with Julianna Pena explaining why she knows Nunes doesn’t want to fight her, and laying out a prediction for how the fight would end up.
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“She knows that stylistically I’m the worst matchup for her. Do you remember when she fought Cat Zingano? She lost. She curled up in the fetal position and the refrees had to freakin pull Cat off of her. I beat Cat, I just beat the other best wrestler in the division, Sara McMann, a silver Olympic wrestler. I am the best wrestler in the division, I’m holding the title for the best wrestler in the division.
She knows that she’s going to curl up in the fetal position, she quit in that life, and she knows she’s going to quit again. I’m going to put her in the uncomfortable positions and she’s not going to want to fight me. She’s going to find a way out of this fight, yet again.”
Following Nunes win over Anderson at UFC 259, Dana White said he was interested in making a fight between the double champ and Pena, and “The Venezuelan Vixen” said she immediately reached out to White after this past weekend personally and told him she’s ready for the fight.
“I know that on my end, we’ve said that we are ready to go. I personally was texting Dana [White] blowing him up saying I’m ready to go and he says we’re gonna get it in the works. You heard him say, that’s the fight to make, you heard it from his own mouth. Now I’m just waiting for them to come back and say ‘yes we booked a date, we’re securing a fight and this is the date.’ This is the only one that makes sense in my opinion.”
Julianna Pena had been scheduled to face Holly Holm later this Spring, but Holm would have to withdraw due to injury, and now Pena is not holding back in her quest for a title fight against Amanda Nunes. She wants the fight, she feels Nunes doesn’t want to fight her, and she has a destructive plan in mind if they step inside the cage with the title on the line.
