SALT LAKE CITY – Julianna Pena is disgusted by the way in which Raquel Pennington has carried herself as champion leading into their UFC 307 title fight.
Peña (11-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC) will challenge Pennington (16-8 MMA, 13-5 UFC) for the women’s bantamweight title on Saturday at Delta Center (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+). It’s a fight that’s been brewing since Season 18 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series.
The former champ Peña said she never expected to see herself in a title bout where Pennington was holding the strap, but said she takes the “blame” because she’s been out more than two years due to injury, allowing Pennington to capture the vacant belt against Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 297 in January.
What Peña has seen out of Pennington in the past nine months has rubbed her the wrong way. And she said the division is begging for someone else to rule the throne.
“Raquel has not been a good representation of the women’s bantamweight division,” Peña told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday’s UFC 307 media day. “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 who wants to promote and be that big representation of women’s MMA. That, to me, is you’re showing me nothing, but you’re telling me everything by not being that person that is letting everyone 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 I am going to be able to seal the deal on Saturday night and get that gold again.”
Pennington has been very vocal about her desire to fight Peña. She didn’t like their interactions on “TUF” after they were roommates, and she’s wanted the fight for the past 10 years.
According to Pennington, the UFC has wanted this matchup several times in the past, but she was told Peña wasn’t interested. Peña disputes that notion.
“That’s the part that doesn’t make sense,” Peña said. “We’ve never had a fight. They’ve never offered me Raquel. They’ve never said to fight Raquel. Ever since I won ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ I have always been looking through the front of my windshield. I’ve never been looking in the rear-view mirror. I’ve always been going up the ladder, and I haven’t been focusing too much on down the ladder.”
For Peña, the goal is and has always been the belt. She got a taste of the championship life after her massive upset win over Amanda Nunes in December 2021, but her reign was swiftly ended in the rematch seven months later.
Nunes is now retired and Pennington runs the show, but Peña insists that’s only going to last for a few more days.
“Every single fight that I fight is the biggest fight of my life. But I feel like, especially at this day and age, the window of fighting for me narrows day-by-day-by-day. I am not no spring chicken no more. I’m not 21 years old. But with that being said comes experience, comes a bit of wiseness in the game. I feel like every fight is the biggest fight of my life, but especially this one because I am going for gold again, and you’re not going to get 100 chances to fight for the belt.
“It took me a long time of calling for the belt to want to get to this point. Now that I’m at this point it’s to maintain and I’m always going to be in these championship fights. So these are gigantic fights for me and I’m going to do everything that I can to seize the moment.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.
