UFC 316 headliner Julianna Pena certainly has her fair share of haters.
Saturday’s pay-per-view event will see a polarizing UFC champion return to action, as Pena defends her title against Kayla Harrison.
The pair’s clash comes seven months on from their respective victories at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City, where Harrison beat Ketlen Vieira to stay unbeaten in the Octagon and Pena narrowly got past Raquel Pennington to commence her second reign.
In the lead-up to UFC 316, the champion has been her usual trash-talking self. But when it comes to Pena’s confident words and demeanor, one retired fighter does not think she backs it up inside the cage.
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Matt Brown is not a fan of UFC 316 champion Julianna Pena
Former UFC welterweight Matt Brown recently looked ahead to Saturday’s numbered card during MMA Fighting’s The Fighter vs. The Writer.
‘The Immortal’ didn’t hold back in his assessment of Pena, going as far as to point to the bantamweight queen as one of the reasons why he doesn’t enjoy women’s MMA.
That’s a far cry from how he views Pena’s challenger at UFC 316, though.
“I almost feel bad for Julianna going into this fight,” Brown said. “I don’t know how she’s gotten as far as she has.
“I don’t like talking trash about fighters, I don’t want to put her down — hopefully she just doesn’t hear this — but she’s exactly one of the reasons I don’t enjoy most women’s MMA. Kayla is exactly one of the reasons I do enjoy some women’s MMA.
“Kayla is a f*cking legit savage fighter and she’s good and it’s (enjoyable) to watch. Julianna, just being honest, I don’t know how she’s in the position she’s in,” Brown added. “She doesn’t really do much of anything good.
“All due respect, I’m not trying to take a bunch of hate for it or anything but it just is what it is. I just don’t see how you can fight that poorly and be in the top organization in the world.”
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Julianna Pena has proved her detractors wrong in the past
When it comes to proving haters wrong come fight night, not many have done so quite like Pena.
‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ had her chances of winning the bantamweight title widely laughed off by fans, fighters, and analysts.
But at UFC 269, Pena submitted the great Amanda Nunes, shocking the world inside Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
While she was unable to repeat the feat in their rematch, Pena’s title crowning will forever be etched in history as one of the all-time greatest upsets.
Pena will now have her sights on another major upset at UFC 316.
Despite entering the bout holding the title, the champion is being widely tipped to drop it in her first defense once again, this time to a former teammate of Nunes’ in Harrison.