Kayla Harrison doesn’t see Julianna Peña getting another title shot.
In just her third fight under the UFC banner, Kayla Harrison captured the UFC women’s bantamweight title with a second-round submission of Julianna Peña in the co-main event of UFC 316 in June.
Harrison now has her eyes on former teammate and two-division champion Amanda Nunes in what could be the biggest fight in women’s MMA history.
Despite coming off of a loss, Peña ‘called dibs’ on fighting the winner of Harrison vs. Nunes.
Harrison has a hard time believing that happens.
- READ MORE: Julianna Pena says Kayla Harrison fight was going exactly as planned until she made one fatal error
Kayla Harrison doubts she fights Julianna Peña again
Peña’s last four fights have had a title on the line. The former champ was given an immediate title fight against then champion Raquel Pennington at UFC 307 last year nearly 800 days after losing a lopsided decision to Amanda Nunes in 2022.
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin, Harrison was asked if she thinks she’ll ever fight Peña again.
“I don’t think so,” Harrison said.
“Not talking crap, I think she’s 2-2 in her last four or 3-3 in her last six, something like that,” Harrison continued.
“I think she’s gotta go back to the drawing board and get some wins.
“There’s also a whole division, there’s a lot of young hungry killers coming up, so we’ll see.
“I’ll fight whoever they want me to fight, but I don’t expect, in my heart, I don’t think I will fight [Peña] again.”
‘I got next’… Julianna Peña ideally wants winner of Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes
If it was up to her, Peña says she’d fight the winner of Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes next.
The super-fight has yet to get a date, but the UFC’s White House card in June could make sense, as Harrison is the only American champion in the promotion right now.
“What would I like in a perfect world would to be sitting there on the White House lawn watching Amanda and Kayla and being like, I got next,” Peña said on The Ariel Helwani Show last week.
“So, you don’t wanna actually compete. You just wanna be the one sitting there in the front row,” Helwani replied.
“I just wanna sit there and harass them like they’ve been harassing me for my last three fights,” Pena said.
“It’s ridiculous. It would be nice to just sit there and watch the show and eat some popcorn like they’ve been doing to me for the last three fights.”
Peña has bounced back and forth between wins and losses in recent years. Peña hasn’t put together back-to-back wins since dethroning Amanda Nunes for the women’s bantamweight title in 2021.