Julianna Peña says Amanda Nunes received’t come again to MMA after the beating she places on Kayla Harrison.
Subsequent month, Peña defends her girls’s bantamweight title towards Harrison within the co-main occasion of UFC 316. However the bout is for extra than simply the ladies’s bantamweight title, it’s additionally for a crack at girls’s MMA GOAT Amanda Nunes. Final month, Nunes revealed she intends to return to the UFC after her two-year retirement from the game, to face the winner of Peña vs. Harrison. It’s a comeback Peña says she at all times knew was coming.
“I used to be at all times anticipating it,” Peña informed Ariel Helwani. “I actually stated it. I went over there to Vancouver, watched her lay down her gloves, and informed everyone what a liar she was and booed her your entire time as a result of I knew that she wasn’t going to be absolutely retired.
“That’s the factor, I hate this complete, ‘I’m retiring. I’m achieved.’ When you’re going to retire, keep retired. I don’t perceive why fighters at all times retire after which come again. What’s the level? Any individual hand this woman the Oscar as a result of she had everyone like, ‘It’s over.’ I’m like, ‘No, it’s not. She’s method too younger, she’s not going to be achieved, she doesn’t know what her life is outdoors of combating, and she or he’s going to get bored and she or he’s going to wish to come again and battle once more.’ Now that the limelight isn’t on her, and it’s on Kayla and I, she sees that. I do know that she’s itching and scratching to get again in there.”
Nunes retired following her UFC 289 title protection over Irene Aldana. However after Harrison signed with the UFC in 2024, rumors started surfacing that Nunes is perhaps considering a comeback to face Harrison. The 2 have been closely rumored to be planning a battle towards one another again in 2021, till Peña upset Nunes at UFC 269, sending Harrison again to the PFL. And Peña plans to spoil these plans but once more, this time by beating Harrison.
“So she’s in for a protracted evening on the workplace,” Peña stated. “And never solely that, however consider her first battle at 135 kilos, going 25 minutes. It’s going to be very grueling and taxing, and at this level, it’s like, how are you going to win? You would possibly be capable to lay on high of me for one spherical, possibly, however after that? Each minute that the battle goes on, the longer that the battle goes on is simply higher for me. I acquired the gasoline tank, I acquired the cardio.”
And if Peña does win? “The Venezuelan Vixen” has not been shy about wanting a trilogy battle with Nunes, however she’s undecided that may occur if she performs spoiler as soon as once more.
“It was informed to me, ‘Amanda desires nothing to do with you,’” Peña stated. “‘She desires completely nothing to do with you. She hates Kayla. She appears like she has nothing to show towards you, and that she hates Kayla greater than she appears like she desires to battle you. So if she comes again, it’s to battle Kayla solely.’ When she sees that chaotic mess that she’s going to see on June 7, she’s not going to wish to get again in there once more and do it once more. She’ll most likely keep ‘retired.’ However we’ll see.”
UFC 316 takes place on June 17 at Prudential Middle in Newark, N.J.
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Whereas I’m not a giant Julianna Peña fan, I do recognize that she has sufficient self-awareness to grasp she doesn’t win fights on model factors. “Look, I received’t beat you by technical expertise, however I’ll make this ugly and sloppy and drag you down into the muck with me. I’m gonna sludge you. That’s how I win.” Peña is really the Iowa soccer of MMA.
Ballot
If Julianna Peña wins at UFC 316, does Amanda Nunes nonetheless come again?
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