Julianna Pena reveals who will be attendance supporting her for her trilogy with Amanda Nunes at UFC 289
Julianna Pena is eager to avenge her loss to Amanda Nunes and regain the women's bantamweight champion and she recently revealed who will be in attendance supporting her when she challenges her in the main event of UFC 289. The trilogy fight will take place at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on June 10.
During her appearance on The MMA Hour, Pena described the negotiations that resulted in the trilogy fight being booked. She revealed that she will have a star studded support group in attendance that includes athletes and entertainers from a number of sports.
She said:
"I got all of the stars coming out. Yeah, all the stars. I got Mike Tyson's coming out there, Ric Flair, Charlotte Flair, I got Tie Domi a Canadian native. There's gonna be all sorts of people out there...in attendance and they're all gonna be supporting me."
'The Venezuelan Vixen's star-studded list of names rooting for her includes a legendary boxing champion, WWE Hall of Famer, one of the top female WWE superstars, and a former NHL enforcer. She also shared a hilarious story of Mike Tyson walking out with her for her rematch with 'Lioness' and how she found out, saying:
"Yeah, Mike Tyson's talking you before you're going out for the biggest fight of your life. No pressure. I was literally like, 'You guys couldn't have told me that he was gonna come walking out with me, what are you doing?'...I love you Mike, but literally you need to stay in the stands this next time."
It will be interesting to see whether Pena can defeat arguably the greatest female MMA fighter of all time for a second time and regain the women's bantamweight championship.
Check out the full video:
Julianna Pena looking forward to competing in Vancouver
Amanda Nunes will fight Julianna Peña at #UFC289 on June 10th. (first rep. @aaronbronsteter) #UFC #MMA #UFCESPN #UFCVancouver #UFC2023 #MainEvent https://t.co/6hxhjDPCv9
Julianna Pena confirmed that UFC 289 was in fact originally set to take place in Calgary, Alberta, Canada before being moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The change of venue was a result of the Calgary Flames still having a chance to advance to the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs, so the promotion decided to move the event to Vancouver to not take any chances. During the affromentioned interview, the former TUF winner expressed her excitement for competing in Vancouver as it will be a homecoming of sorts.
She said:
"I'm happy that it got moved to the Pacific Northwest, Vancouver. You know, I used to vacation there in Vancouver. It's 45-minutes across the border from my grandma's house, so as kids we would always go to Vancouver to visit. And it's great, it's my homecoming. I'm going home and...I'm gonna go bury this girl in my backyard."