Julianna Pena, the reigning UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion, is not buying into the injury claims made by her adversary Amanda Nunes after their UFC 269 clash last December.
The Amanda era is done: Julianna Pena
In the co-main event of UFC 269, which took place on 11th December at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, Julianna Pena shocked the MMA fandom after a forcing the unstoppable Amanda Nunes via rear naked choke in the second round, ending the five year long Bantamweight title reign of the Brazilian.
The loss was one of the biggest upsets in the UFC ever, and following the defeat, Nunes claimed that she went into the bout with an injury and later detailed it in an interview with ESPN.
“Both knees was, like, pretty bad and I wasn’t able to recover. Every time that I training, [I went] back home, and the next day I couldn’t even walk. I needed rest. I couldn’t turn, do all the things that I have to do, like do jiu jitsu that much, wrestling. Pretty much, I was doing only hands, like striking or whatever I going to do for conditioning, I used only my arms. So that cost me my belt,” said Nunes at that time.
Ahead of her rematch with Nunes which takes place at UFC 277 on 30th July, Pena replied to her rival’s comments, saying that she herself has the experience of injuries and never came up with excuses after defeats.
“I’ve had two knee surgeries, one on each knee, you know, and I’ve never used me getting choked unconscious like ‘Oh, it was because of my knees,’ you know what I mean? So you gotta say whatever you can to motivate yourself and to pump yourself up, and to sleep at night so that you can say ‘Yes, it was my knees, and next time I’m gonna get it done.’ So you gotta say whatever you gotta say, and I understand that,” Pena told KREM2.
“People are still counting me out, people are still doubting me, people are still saying it’s a fluke and she had a bad night and this, that, and the other. They have every excuse in the book for why I won. And so my whole premise behind wanting to do the rematch was just that I am here to stay, that this is my time and my era. The Amanda era is done, it’s the Julianna Pena era now,” she added. [H/T Sportskeeda]
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