Kayla Harrison isn’t surprised that Julianna Pena didn’t address her after reclaiming the UFC women’s bantamweight title.
Peña (13-5 MMA, 8-3 UFC) edged out Raquel Pennington in Saturday’s UFC 307 co-main event at Delta Center in Salt Lake City. On the same night, Harrison (18-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) became No. 1 contender when she defeated Ketlen Vieira.
During Peña’s post-fight interview in the octagon, a split screen showed Harrison watching her talk. But instead of calling out Harrison, Peña turned her attention to a trilogy bout with Amanda Nunes.
“I think she’s just scared, got to make a lot of noise,” Harrison told TMZ. “I think she’ll do anything not to fight me, including call out – she’s probably going to call out Ronda Rousey next. I’m used to it. We’re blonde, and we did judo, so we must be just alike. From what I understand from my manager, I’m next.”
Harrison was asked who she’d rather fight next: Peña for the title or Nunes, and the two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka said she has a plan.
“I want both,” Harrison said. “Can I not have both? I want to win the title. Give Amanda time to get back in shape and train. She can be training for me that whole time. I’ll go f*ck up Julianna real quick, and then Amanda and I can fight.”
Many thought Pennington was robbed against Peña and Harrison agrees – even though she admits that she didn’t get to watch the entire fight.
“I didn’t get to see the full fight, I haven’t gone back and watched the first round yet, but I thought that ‘Rocky’ (Pennington) won,” Harrison said. “I mean, it’s kind of like an unspoken rule: You’ve got to take the title. You don’t get to steal the title. You’ve got to take the title.
“And I looked on MMA Decisions and every single – like that never happened. I’ve never seen it where every single journalist agrees, and they all said that Raquel won it. I didn’t see the first round, so I can’t absolutely say.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.
