Julianna Pena was supposed to face “The Lioness” Amanda Nunes at UFC 256, but Nunes had to pull out from the fight due to Covid-19, Pena was eagerly waiting for this matchup and she isn’t satisfied by Nunes’ explanation for pulling out from the fight.
In a recent interview she questioned Nunes’ excuse, she said, “This is her third time pulling out of a fight, second time from COVID, and it’s just kind of confusing to me, just because Nina had posted on her story on Instagram that they’d been locked down for 11 days and tested negative, and they’re happy to be able to get out of the house,” she said. “But the timeline doesn’t really add up because of the time they called and told me she tested positive. I’m just kind of confused about the whole thing, because if she was negative when Nina posted, then she still could have made the fight.”
Pena accused Nunes of faking her illness to delay this fight, she stated, “There’s all sorts of situations that happen during a fight camp, and I’m understanding of that and I sympathize. But this fight was my top priority, and staying healthy has been hard for me as well, but I made sure I could do everything that I was contractually obligated to do and show up for fight week, and she did not. And so, I’m just frustrated, because I’ve literally seen her jumping up and down screaming at the top of her lungs during the Olympics when she’s saying she’s super sick with COVID.”
Julianna Pena says if Amanda Nunes can’t make it till December, then she would face Germaine De Randamie instead
Pena wants to fight for the title, but she isn’t willing to wait after December, she said, “I’m confident the fight will happen eventually. I don’t know when that time is. Whenever she’s healthy, whenever she’s ready to rock, I’ll be ready to rock. But in December, that will be two years she hasn’t defended the belt. So if she does this again, in my opinion, I believe she should be stripped. The train has got to keep moving. We’re going to need to get another girl in there who’s ready to rock and ready to fight for the belt, because I’m definitely ready to fight.”
“I want to be the UFC’s new bantamweight champion and I want to fight Amanda for that,” Pena said. “If she can’t make it and has problems showing up in December, the No. 1 girl is Germaine, and I would love to run it back with her.”
Also read- ‘She has a lot of holes’ – Amanda Nunes plans to finish Julianna Pena at UFC 265
