"The girl gasses when she walks up a flight of stairs" - Julianna Pena continues campaign to face Amanda Nunes
Julianna Pena believes Amanda Nunes' cardio would not hold up in a five-round bantamweight fight against her.
The Venezuelan Vixen is campaigning for the opportunity to take the UFC women's bantamweight title from Nunes and recently spoke to Ariel Helwani of ESPN.
Julianna Pena told Ariel Helwani that she is a difficult stylistic matchup for Amanda Nunes due to her superior cardio. She also acknowledged the MMA community's consensus that Nunes would win a potential showdown.
"I am stylistically the worst matchup for her possible. Yes, the girl gasses when she walks up a flight of stairs. I mean she comes down to 135lbs, she fights in a five-round fight, she's gonna gas. So it's a terrible matchup for her. She knows it, I know it, the rest of the public doesn't know it. They think I'm gonna get murdered. But if that's the thing and that's how she feels, come murder me then. Let's do this, what's the hold-up?"
Cardio may not help Julianna Pena against Amanda Nunes
Julianna Pena's comments on Amanda Nunes' cardio issues presumably refer to the latter's performance in her first fight against Valentina Shevchenko.
After dominating Shevchenko for the first two rounds, The Lioness visibly slowed down in the third and lost the round to "The Bullet". However, Amanda Nunes' cardio does not seem to be an issue anymore.
The Lioness recently scored three wins in five-round fights against Shevchenko, Germaine De Randamie, and Felicia Spencer with relative ease.
Julianna Pena is the No. 6 ranked contender in the women's bantamweight division and last fought at UFC 257 to score a submission win over Sara McMann.
During the UFC 259 post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White told the media that he and his team had received several messages from Julianna Pena asking for a fight against Nunes.
"Julianna Pena has been texting all of us all night, she's been busy tonight. Yeah, we could do that (Book a fight between Juliana Pena and Amanda Nunes)."
Amanda Nunes defended her featherweight title against Australian Megan Anderson at UFC 259 and won via first-round submission, but the double champ will most likely defend her bantamweight title next.
Megan Anderson and Felicia Spencer are the only legitimate women's featherweight fighters and they both lost to Nunes at UFC 250 and UFC 259 respectively.