Julianna Pena is still riding high from her UFC 269 win over former champ-champ Amanda Nunes in December.
Pena (11-4-0) will rematch with the ‘Lioness’ after coaching on opposite sides in an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. In the meantime, the ‘Venezuelan Vixen’ has been busy taking shots at women’s MMA icon Ronda Rousey.
Pena has made comments about the UFC’s first female bantamweight champion for years. During an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Pena once again brought up Rousey, labeling her as a “sellout” and a “joke in the MMA world.”
“She got knocked out twice and never came back, so how legit is she? She had to go to pro wrestling. I get that, and I think that’s great. But as a fighter, I understand deep-down that it bothers that she went off with two knockout losses and never made her name good. If it does get under her skin by the fact that her legacy is kind of like ruined by the fact that she never came back, I’d like to welcome her back with open arms.
“Dodging Me From Day One”
“No [I don’t think she’ll come back], that’s what I’m saying. She’s a bit of a joke in the MMA world now. She’s a little bit of a sellout, I mean, I guess I understand right? It’s like, pro-wrestling it’s fake and you get paid millions of dollars. But for me, for the real s*it, to be the real deal, that’s in the UFC. If she ever wants any of that real smoke, I’m ready.”
This is far from the first time that Pena has brought up Rousey during an interview. While speaking with Submission Radio in 2017, Pena claimed that Rousey’s success was the result of handpicked fights.
“Ronda Rousey is mentally weak and she was literally handpicking her fights from the very beginning, and in my opinion she’s the worst girl on the roster,” said Pena. “That girl’s been dodging me from day one and she knows it.”
Now it appears that one woman on the UFC roster has taken exception to Pena’s disparaging remarks towards Rousey.
Casey O’Neill (9-0) tweeted her response to Pena’s comments about Rousey and showed support for the former champion, calling her a ‘trailblazer’.
“A joke ? Because she had a few losses and decided to move on with her life ? This isn’t how it should be… we should be supporting each other as females in this sport… you can have an opinion on someone’s skills but this isn’t it. Forever a trailblazer & all she done for females”
‘King’ Casey is currently scheduled to face Jessica Eye at UFC 276 in July. Since debuting under the UFC banner in Feb. 2021, O’Neill has remained undefeated with finishes against Shana Dobson, Lara Procopio and Antonina Shevchenko. Most recently she earned a decision victory over retiring women’s MMA legend Roxanne Modafferi at UFC 271.
Rousey is currently in her second run with WWE. She competed against Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 38 over the weekend and made history by becoming one of the first women to main event a WrestleMania in 2019.
Featured image credit to Embed from Getty Images
