Julianna Pena vows to regain women's bantamweight championship at UFC 307: "I'm willing to die in there"
Julianna Pena recently opened up about her upcoming title shot against Raquel Pennington and vowed to regain the women's bantamweight championship. The bout is scheduled to serve as the co-main event of UFC 307, which takes place this Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The bout has been a decade in the making as the two were teammates on 'The Ultimate Fighter', but never ended up competing in the UFC until this coming Saturday.
Both fighters have reached the pinnacle of the sport by becoming women's bantamweight champion, however, 'The Venezuelan Vixen' famously did so by submitting Amanda Nunes and believes that she will inevitably regain the title.
While speaking with MMA Fighting, the former women's bantamweight champion opened up about her title fight against 'Rocky' and vowed to defeat her by any means necessary. Pena mentioned that she has showcased her resilience throughout her career and is prepared to go to war with Pennington in order to regain the women's bantamweight championship:
"If I gotta poke her eyeballs out, if I gotta bite her on the freaking finger, I'm gonna literally do whatever I can to get my hand raised, I don't care. Come hell or high water, I guarantee you I am willing to die in there as you guys have seen and I'm not gonna stop until I get the victory. So I don't care if I knock her out with a pinky finger...if I submit her with one arm again, I'm going to do everything that I can...to get my hand raised." [11:37 - 12:07]
Check out the full interview with Julianna Pena below:
Julianna Pena responds to criticism of her receiving a title shot after two-year layoff
In addition to vowing to regain the women's bantamweight championship, Julianna Pena responded to criticism of her receiving the title shot after a two-year layoff.
During the aforementioned interview, Pena reaffirmed her position as the worthy number-one contender and diminished the argument for Kayla Harrison receiving a title shot before her:
"I think not only is it unfair for somebody to beat a 45-year-old and get one win and be able to fight for the title, and just kind of jump the line ahead of all these other girls that have been in the division for a long time, but also, there hasn't been anybody else that was ever able to stop Amanda Nunes in the dominant fashion that I was able to do." [8:25 - 8:54]
Check out the official poster for UFC 307 featuring Raquel Pennington vs. Julianna Pena below: