Julianna Pena’s second bantamweight title reign came to an end in emphatic fashion at UFC 316.
Pena was once again unable to add a successful title defense to her résumé in MMA’s leading promotion on June 7, when she returned for the first time since unseating Raquel Pennington from the throne in 2024.
After Amanda Nunes got revenge to end her first stint with the title in 2022, Pena was submitted by Kayla Harrison this time around, once again ending her reign at the very first hurdle.
And the defeat to Harrison seemingly stings more for Pena given how she feels the fight was going.
Julianna Pena insists UFC 316 title defense was going well until her mistake on the ground
At UFC 277, Pena was dominantly beaten by Nunes in their rematch, losing all five rounds and being dropped multiple times.
With that, it’s safe to say things didn’t go as planned for ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ from minute one. Against Harrison, though, Pena doesn’t think the same applies.
During a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, the former two-time champ reflected on her latest setback and claimed the fight was going ‘perfectly’ until she made one mistake on the ground that allowed Harrison to secure the kimura hold.
“I was trying to do this move, this jiu-jitsu sweep that I thought was going to work,” Pena said. “It ended up getting me in deeper in the hole. It made my arm easier to isolate. By me trying to do that move, it cost me everything.
“Five seconds left on the bell, and the fight (was) in my perception going the way I thought it was going to go, going the way I had trained for. In this fight camp, it was like, ‘Tap into her gas tank! Tap into her gas tank!’
“For fight camp, I’m getting taken down round one, taken down round two, no problem. In round three, everybody’s gassed, everybody can’t keep the pace, everybody’s getting choked,” Pena added.
“Going into that fight and being round two with minimal damage, I was like, ‘This is going exactly the way I thought it was going to. This is perfect.’ … So for it to just go completely off the rails with five seconds left to go, I mean, it’s just absolutely humiliating.”
Julianna Pena claims she had a ‘severe handicap’ at UFC 316
Making things worse for Pena when Harrison targeted her arm was an apparent severe injury she had entered UFC 316 with.
During the same interview, Pena claimed she fought Harrison with a handicap, having suffered a couple of physical issues in the days leading up to their title showdown.
“I was plagued with several injuries heading into that fight. It wasn’t a good camp for me in that sense, because I knew that I was going into the fight with a pretty severe handicap,” Pena said.
“It crossed my mind [to withdraw] but it wasn’t bad enough to the point where I would have to not fight, because I knew I was going to be able to push through. … I don’t regret competing, I just wish I could’ve competed under better circumstances.
“Second week of May I broke my thumb on my training partner, and it was swollen, looked like someone hit me in the hand with a hammer. It was really difficult to grip, and it still is really difficult,” Pena added. “Then I took a really bad fall in the Octagon and I tore my elbow, broke off a ton of bone chips so that I wasn’t able to straighten my arm or bend my arm fully.”
Pena will now look ahead to her opportunity to bounce back down the line.
While some have suggested a potential flyweight switch, ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ instead caused a stir by announcing her intention to challenge the winner of Harrison vs. Nunes.