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Yes. It would appear that Julianna Pena’s record is good enough to earn her a UFC bantamweight title shot against Amanda Nunes.
However, the ongoing debate regarding whether or not The Venezuelan Vixen deserves to fight Amanda Nunes is quite nuanced – much more than a simple yes or no.
Julianna Pena’s MMA record
Julianna Pena has a professional MMA record of tenn wins and four losses – Pena has three wins via KO/TKO, four via submission, and three via decision. On the other hand, Pena also has one loss by KO/TKO, two by submission, and one by decision.
Julianna Pena’s exhibition MMA record stands at three wins and zero losses (two wins via submission and one via decision). All three of her exhibition MMA fights took place during her time as a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rousey vs. Team Tate (TUF 18). Pena notably won the TUF 18 reality show and has been competing in the UFC women’s bantamweight division.
Julianna Pena’s UFC run and her possible fight against Amanda Nunes
Julianna Pena started off her run in the UFC with an impressive four-fight win streak. The fourth win in her win streak was a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over longtime women’s MMA mainstay and former UFC women’s bantamweight title challenger Cat Zingano.
Intriguingly, Cat Zingano is the last person to have defeated Amanda Nunes in a professional MMA bout. Zingano defeated Nunes via third-round TKO at UFC 178 in September 2014.
While Amanda Nunes’ last official loss was to Cat Zingano, many in the combat sports world often note that Nunes also lost her rematch against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 215 in September 2017.
The vast majority of combat sports fans and experts believe that the judges – whose verdict was a split decision in favor of Nunes – ought to have awarded the fight to Shevchenko. Apart from Zingano and Shevchenko, Nunes hasn’t faced much adversity over the past several years.
This begs the question: Why does Julianna Pena deserve to fight Amanda Nunes next? The answer lies in the current landscape of the UFC women’s bantamweight division.
Cat Zingano no longer fights in the UFC and is presently one of the Bellator MMA women’s featherweight division’s top fighters. Furthermore, the rest of the UFC women’s bantamweight division consists mainly of fighters whom Amanda Nunes has already beaten.
Amanda Nunes’ archrival Valentina Shevchenko is the current UFC women’s flyweight champion and has expressed interest in fighting Nunes in a trilogy matchup. However, Nunes doesn’t seem interested in fighting Shevchenko, having beaten her via unanimous decision in their first fight and via a highly debated split decision in their rematch.
Remember Julianna Pena’s four-fight win streak that she started her UFC run with? Well, that streak was ended by Valentina Shevchenko, who bested Pena via second-round submission. Pena’s next fight was a unanimous decision win over Nicco Montano.
This was followed by a third-round submission loss against Germaine de Randamie. Julianna Pena’s next fight, also her most recent one, was a third-round submission win over Sara McMann in January 2021.
An Amanda Nunes vs. Julianna Pena UFC women’s bantamweight title fight appears to be a mismatch on paper. Pena is 2-2 in her last four fights dating back to 2017. The scrap prior to that was her big win against Cat Zingano in 2016.
But with no clear challenger for Nunes’ title in the UFC women’s bantamweight division, the path to The Lioness is clear. It’s now up to The Venezuelan Vixen to make the most of it.
