Julianna Peña believes Amanda Nunes will not return to mixed martial arts once Peña defeats Kayla Harrison.
Next month, Peña is set to defend her women`s bantamweight championship against Kayla Harrison in the co-main event at UFC 316. This significant bout is not only for the title but also positions the winner to potentially face the returning former champion and widely considered `GOAT` of women`s MMA, Amanda Nunes. Nunes recently announced her intention to end her two-year retirement to challenge the victor of the Peña-Harrison clash, a comeback Peña claims she always anticipated.
“I was always expecting it,” Peña shared with Ariel Helwani. “I literally said it. I went over there to Vancouver, watched her lay down her gloves, and told everybody what a liar she was and booed her the entire time because I knew that she wasn’t going to be fully retired.
“That’s the thing, I hate this whole, ‘I’m retiring. I’m done.’ If you’re going to retire, stay retired. I don’t understand why fighters always retire and then come back. What is the point? Somebody hand this girl the Oscar because she had everybody like, ‘It’s over.’ I’m like, ‘No, it’s not. She’s way too young, she’s not going to be done, she doesn’t know what her life is outside of fighting, and she’s going to get bored and she’s going to want to come back and fight again.’ Now that the limelight is not on her, and it’s on Kayla and I, she sees that. I know that she’s itching and scratching to get back in there.”
Nunes retired following her successful UFC 289 title defense against Irene Aldana. However, after Kayla Harrison signed with the UFC in 2024, speculation quickly arose about a potential comeback for Nunes specifically to face Harrison. The pair were heavily rumored to be planning a fight back in 2021, but Peña`s upset victory over Nunes at UFC 269 derailed those plans, leading to Harrison`s return to the PFL. Peña aims to disrupt these potential plans once more by defeating Harrison.
“So she’s in for a long night at the office,” Peña commented regarding Harrison. “And not only that, but take into consideration her first fight at 135 pounds, going 25 minutes. It’s going to be very grueling and taxing, and at this point, it’s like, how are you going to win? You might be able to lay on top of me for one round, maybe, but after that? Every minute that the fight goes on, the longer that the fight goes on is just better for me. I got the gas tank, I got the cardio.”
And what if Peña emerges victorious? “The Venezuelan Vixen” has made no secret of her desire for a trilogy fight against Nunes, but she expresses doubt that the rematch will actually happen if she spoils the potential matchup with Harrison again.
“It was told to me, ‘Amanda wants nothing to do with you,’” Peña stated she was informed. “‘She wants absolutely nothing to do with you. She hates Kayla. She feels like she has nothing to prove against you, and that she hates Kayla more than she feels like she wants to fight you. So if she comes back, it’s to fight Kayla only.’ When she sees that chaotic mess that she’s going to see on June 7, she’s not going to want to get back in there again and do it all over again. She’ll probably stay ‘retired.’ But we’ll see.”
UFC 316 is scheduled to take place on June 17 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
