Julianna Peña requires Amanda Nunes trilogy after UFC 307 title win: ‘Greatest combat in girls’s MMA historical past’

SALT LAKE CITY – Julianna Pena is set to settle the rating with Amanda Nunes.

Regardless of Nunes being retired, Peña (12-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC) remains to be holding out hope for a 3rd combat between the 2, particularly after her newest exhibiting within the octagon. Peña recaptured the UFC girls’s bantamweight title Saturday by outpointing Raquel Pennington (16-9 MMA, 13-5 UFC) in a cut up determination within the co-main occasion of UFC 307.

Peña hopes her championship win is sufficient to lure again Nunes from retirement, that means they will break their 1-1 tie and settle the rating to their rivarly.

“Once I noticed Amanda retire that day, I used to be sitting cageside, and I used to be booing as a result of I didn’t imagine she was really executed,” Peña stated on the UFC 307 post-fight interview. “You hear Dana White saying that he thinks she retired too early, and then you definitely watch her and I feel she’s simply twiddling her thumbs and saying, ‘What am I doing? I’m bored. Who am I if I’m not preventing within the UFC?’

“There’s an air that I really feel that she’s lacking this sport and looking for one thing to make her wish to come again. … I actually don’t imagine she’s executed. She retired too early. I feel that she’s searching for one thing to do.”

Other than Nunes expressing curiosity in doubtlessly preventing once more, Peña believes a 3rd combat between the 2 can be the most important combat within the historical past of ladies’s MMA.

“That, to me, is the most important combat in girls’s combined martial arts historical past as a result of we’re 1-1,” Peña stated. “My combat towards her was so dominant, I made her faucet. Our second time, I ran out of time. I misplaced a choice handily – tremendous. No downside. However it will be good to place it to mattress as soon as and for all and get that trilogy combat that she ran away from.”

There’s no assure Nunes can be thinking about a return. But when that’s the case, Peña is okay defending her title towards Kayla Harrsion – who additionally fought at UFC 307 and beat Ketlen Vieira.

“If Amanda cowards away and doesn’t come again and combat me, then sure, you’re completely proper: Kayla brings lots of eyeballs and a focus to the game, and I really like that.”

For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC 307.