Julianna Pena doesn’t think the judges’ scorecards accurately reflected her rematch with Amanda Nunes.
Peña (11-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC), who dethroned Nunes with an upset submission at UFC 269, failed to keep her belt in the rematch after she lost a unanimous decision at UFC 277. Peña was knocked down three times and taken down six times by Nunes, prompting one of the judges to score the fight 50-43 in favor of “The Lioness.”
Although the scorecards swayed heavily toward Nunes’ side, Peña never stopped fighting. Peña was eager to settle the score in a trilogy bout, but Nunes ended up retiring.
“I’ll always want to fight her if she decides to return, absolutely,” Peña told ESPN. “There’s fights that are on my bucket list of things that I want to get back, things that I want to do, and she’s definitely one of them. I definitely think she knows that; I know that. Maybe not the general public knows that because all they’re looking at is possibly highlights.
“What I would encourage fans to do is go back and watch that (second) fight and actually take into account, without the commentary or anything, just watch the fight. You’ll see that it was a lot closer than people want to give me credit for. They see the drops, they see me getting knocked down and yeah, it absolutely happened. But I let her take the time to go make those adjustments and revamp her entire style. I felt like it was kind of a snub for her to not let me have that same opportunity.”
Peña is the only fighter to beat Nunes in nearly 10 years. “The Venezuelan Vixen” got her rubber match against Nunes at UFC 289, but she was forced to withdraw due to a broken rib. Nunes faced Irene Aldana instead, and hung up her gloves after beating her.
“I think the biggest thing for me is we are 1-1,” Pena said. “I think I’m the only person on the face of the planet that is allowed or can say or call Amanda Nunes a coward, because we do have unfinished business and I definitely think she found the easy way out in retiring. Injuries happen in the sport. Of course, it’s my fault that I wasn’t able to compete at that time, but she also pulled out of our fight when we were supposed to fight the first time.
“She’s pulled out of many fights in the past. It doesn’t mean that you go retire because of it. It’s just a little frustrating, and I think that I was definitely showing my frustration there cageside, which of course that’s what I’m going to do when they’re sticking the camera in my face and asking me what are my thoughts after every single round. So, I got a little ahead of myself.”
