Julianna Pena has as soon as once more been backed to drag off an underdog victory when she takes on Kayla Harrison this Saturday at UFC 316.
At UFC 316 this coming Saturday, Kayla Harrison will lastly combat for a UFC title when she takes on the ladies’s bantamweight champion, Julianna Pena.
Pena reclaimed the 135lb title when she picked up a cut up determination win over Raquel Pennington following Amanda Nunes’ shock retirement following her UFC 289 win over Irene Aldana.
Harrison then again has earned her title shot after a comprehensive debut win over Holly Holm at UFC 300, adopted by a decision win over Ketlen Vieira at UFC 307.
Valentina Shevchenko predicts Pena to beat Harrison at UFC 316
Harrison is extensively thought to be probably the most dominant females in ladies’s MMA historical past due to her judoka background and heavy ground-and-pound.
When Harrison was ready to make use of elbows for the primary time in her profession, she left her opponent in a pool of her own blood, and that’s an space she’s going to seemingly look to dominate over Pena.
Regardless of Harrison’s continued showcase of dominance, the consensus biggest ladies’s fighter of all time, Valentina Shevchenko, has picked ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ to retain her title in Newark, New Jersey.
“If we evaluate it to my earlier combat towards Manon (Fiorot), she had 12 wins with out (a break) and he or she was considering {that a} championship combat was gonna be the identical but it surely’s not the identical,” Shevchenko instructed ESPN MMA.
“You’ll face totally different challenges and I really feel the identical manner (about this combat), that is my essential occasion at UFC 316, it’s Julianna Pena towards Kayla Harrison.
“I really feel the identical manner that it’s gonna be a very totally different combat for Kayla Harrison and she’s going to really feel utterly totally different as a result of Julianna, she possesses this capacity to win and to show a combat from a place the place she’s uncomfortable to being comfy, she isn’t frightened of grappling.
“She will be able to submit from any place… It’s very arduous to take her down. Me being a former opponent of Julianna, I undoubtedly like her model and like her so much… I will likely be rooting for Julianna… Julianna will do every thing double to win,” Shevchenko continued.
Julianna Pena was submitted by Shevchenko in 2017
Just some fights into her UFC profession after incomes a contract by successful The Ultimate Fighter, Pena was matched up towards ‘Bullet’ Shevchenko, who gave the impression to be on a transparent path to the title.
This marked Pena’s first essential occasion within the promotion and he or she was subsequently submitted in spherical two after Shevchenko caught her in a brutal armbar.
With a win over Harrison at UFC 316, Pena will likely be undoubtedly assured of pulling Nunes out of retirement for them to lastly settle their historic rivalry.
