Julianna Pena claims she fought with a “severe handicap” at UFC 316.
On June 7, Pena was unsuccessful once again in recording a successful title defense. She had previously fallen short of that feat at UFC 277 in 2022, when Amanda Nunes exacted her revenge on Pena.
The second time around, it was the turn of Kayla Harrison to make the TUF winner’s championship reign a short one. In the co-main event of UFC 316, Harrison submitted Pena with a kimura in round two.
The “humiliated” former champ has since stated that she fought while compromised due to a couple of bad injuries.
But ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ won’t be getting any sympathy from this UFC peer…
Cody Gibson not interested in Julianna Pena’s UFC 316 ‘excuses’
While speaking to Ariel Helwani, Pena divulged her pre-UFC 316 injuries, which included a broken thumb and ‘torn elbow’.
The former two-time champ was quickly lambasted by some for making “excuses,” especially given her confident pre-fight demeanor and promise to hand Harrison her first loss.
Among those dismissing Pena’s recent remarks was fellow UFC fighter Cody Gibson. In a post on X, ‘The Renegade’ expressed frustration with the growing trend of fighters revealing apparent injuries and adversity after the fact.
“No one cares…It’s not a good look…Accountability = growth…No one cares,” Gibson wrote.
“If you sign the contract you’re telling the world you believe you can win. It’s either true or it isn’t. Simple as that. Post fight excuses are becoming more common and they annoy me,” Gibson added.
Julianna Pena says the Kayla Harrison fight was going ‘perfect’ until the kimura
Despite her apparent physical issues, ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ believes things were playing out well at UFC 316.
During the same interview with Helwani, Pena said everything went to plan against Harrison until she made one fatal error on the ground that opened the door for the two-time Olympic gold medalist.
“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.”
Pena will be hoping for the chance at redemption against either Harrison or Nunes down the line.
She was quick to stake her claim for a shot at the winner of the next bantamweight title fight, though that was soon met with backlash by many fans and media members.