Julianna Pena’s second girls’s bantamweight title run got here to an abrupt halt within the UFC 316 co-main occasion over the weekend in Newark, New Jersey. Late within the second spherical, Kayla Harrison pressured Pena to faucet out to a kimura to turn out to be the brand new UFC girls’s 135-pound champion.
Sitting octagon-side for the struggle was former two-division UFC titleholder Amanda Nunes. She entered the cage following Harrison’s win organising a future struggle between the previous teammates.
Following the loss, a ‘tremendous disenchanted’ Pena launched an announcement by way of social media calling for the winner of the Harrison vs. Nunes struggle.
“Thanks to the followers who lifted me along with your love and encouragement throughout this #fightcamp. I really like you all and really feel so grateful for all of the assist and vitality you guys give me—It actually means the world! I’m sorry I wasn’t capable of get the job finished. I’m tremendous disenchanted however hats off to Kayla on her wine,” Pena wrote on Instagram.
“Time to get healed up and prepare for her subsequent struggle as a result of I’m calling dibs on the winner!”
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Pena first turned the 135-pound titleholder by beating the nice Amanda Nunes in December 2021 at UFC 269. Nunes avenged the loss within the rematch at UFC 277 and introduced her retirement. Pena gained again the bantamweight crown at UFC 307, narrowly defeating Raquel Pennington by way of break up resolution.
Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in Judo, made her octagon debut at UFC 300 in opposition to former champion Holly Holm. She demolished “The Preacher’s Daughter” and picked up a win over Ketlen Vieira at UFC 307 to earn the title struggle with Pennington.
Earlier than her arrival within the UFC, Harrison was a two-time PFL girls’s light-weight champion.
