Julianna Peña hasn’t forgotten what Ronda Rousey mentioned to her.
Eight years earlier than Peña stunned the world in defeating Amanda Nunes for the UFC girls’s bantamweight title, she was a competitor on “The Final Fighter,” finally profitable the match and incomes a UFC contract within the course of.
The present was billed as Workforce Rousey vs. Workforce Tate. Peña was on the latter, led by Miesha Tate, with whom she’d develop into shut mates and coaching companions.
This meant a rivalry with Rousey, who to today Peña doesn’t have a chummy relationship.
“We’re not mates,” Peña instructed The Submit. “We don’t communicate.
“She actually had a troublesome time getting together with me on The Final Fighter. She didn’t like me in any respect as a result of I used to be mates with Miesha Tate Tate. She wasn’t the nicest.”
Proper now, Peña is targeted on the duty at hand, which might be an eventual rematch with Nunes. In December, Peña defeated Nunes with a rear-naked choke submission maneuver. Each Peña and UFC boss Dana White have agreed that Nunes deserves a rematch. The date of their subsequent battle will not be but recognized.
Peña, requested who could be her dream battle ought to she beat Nunes for a second time, didn’t hesitate.
“It will be superb to tug Ronda Rousey again out of retirement,” Peña mentioned. “It will be nice to have her come again to UFC and battle once more.”
Again in 2013, when Rousey was on prime of the battle recreation and decimating everybody in her path, Peña recalled a second from “The Final Fighter” when Rousey’s conceitedness nonetheless sticks along with her to today.
“I don’t know that she’ll recall this as a result of she ended up getting taken out by her complete workforce,” Peña mentioned. “However after we gained ‘The Final Fighter’ and received out of the home, she instructed me that, ‘You’re gonna give me a harder battle than Miesha Tate Tate, however when that day comes I’m nonetheless gonna kick your ass.’”
Peña’s response?
“I form of mentioned to her, ‘We’ll see.’”
A serious subject with this dream battle for Peña is that Rousey has now been retired from UFC for over 5 years.
Rousey’s final two fights have been convincing, bodily taxing losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, and he or she has proven no inkling of returning to the Octagon since.
Within the interim, Rousey has finished a stint in WWE, and gave birth to baby daughter La’akea Makalapuaokalanipō Browne this past September.
If Rousey ever does contemplate a comeback to MMA, there’s a champion in Julianna Peña relishing the chance to make her again up her outdated phrases.
