“It’s a dream matchup”- Julianna Pena open to locking horns with Ronda Rousey if she returns to the UFC
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Ronda Rousey- Julianna Pena
UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Julianna Pena definitely knows how to call her shots for a great resume, whether it’s having a fight again with Amanda Nunes, or giving it a try in making UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey wear her gloves back. Pena in her last fight pulled off the greatest upset in women’s combat sports history when she defeated Nunes, a former two-division champion and currently the featherweight champion, via second-round submission back at UFC 269 in December 2021.
Rousey, the first female UFC Hall of Famer, reigned supreme in the UFC’s women’s bantamweight division and pound for pound rankings from 2012-2015 when she was on a monstrous run of back to back title defences after becoming the inaugural UFC’s Bantamweight champion back when the UFC bought the Strikeforce in 2012. Rousey’s 12-fight winning streak came to an end after a devastating knockout loss to Holly Holm followed by another knockout loss to Amanda Nunes the next year.
After that, Rousey retired from the sport of MMA to pursue a career in professional wrestling there she became one of the first three women to headline WWE’s Wrestlemania card, the biggest event in the history of sports entertainment. Rousey took a break from WWE and in the due course became a mother last year. Now, Rousey came back to WWE to win the women’s 2022 Royal Rumble.
Julianna Pena thinks Ronda Rousey’s losses don’t sit well with her
In an interview with TMZ Sports, Pena talked about what it’s like to coach at The Ultimate Fighter series, where she was once a fighter from a team herself getting coached and eventually becoming The Ultimate Fighter. Talking about Rousey coming back to WWE, Pena made a case for why the UFC Hall of Famer should be coming back into MMA. Pena basically used the time of Rousey’s sudden fall from the top of the mountain where she was on 5 title defences at one point and then received back to back knockout losses after, before she finally retired from MMA.
“If it were me and I went out on two knockouts after being you know as dominant as she was that would bother me, that would eat me at my core,” says Pena “I have a feeling from fighter to a fighter that it probably doesn’t sit too well with her, so if she wants to you know to come back to real fighting I would absolutely love to greet her and make that fight happen, it’s a dream matchup for me,“ Pena concluded.
What do you make of Pena’s proposal to be the comeback fight for Rousey? Do you think Rousey has still got it to fight with the very best of the sport? Where do you put Rousey amongst the all-time greats in MMA? It’s quite certain that women’s mixed martial arts elevated to a whole new level of appreciation and respect because of names like Gina Carano, Cris Cyborg and Ronda Rousey. The amount of work she put in to become known in a male-dominated world of combat sports is a commendable benchmark and one of the greatest periods of combat sports history.
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Abhai Singh Tanwar
(1386 Articles Published)