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Julianna Pena has defended her booing of Amanda Nunes' retirement.
Pena and Nunes have had quite the history, having fought each other twice before the latter's retirement. They first met at UFC 269 when the former pulled off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history and defeated 'The Lioness' by submission.
They ran it back at UFC 277, where Nunes put on a dominant performance to regain her UFC women's bantamweight title. They were slated for a trilogy at UFC 289 last year, however, Pena had to withdraw from the fight because of an injury.
As such, Nunes went ahead and fought Irene Aldana. Following her win against Aldana, 'The Lioness' announced her retirement from the sport and was subsequently slammed by Pena.
Pena booed Nunes' retirement and suggested that the Brazilian was retiring to avoid a trilogy bout. Explaining her comments during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, she said:
"I was booing because she was going into retirement. I was like, 'Don't go into retirement we have literally the biggest fight in women's history, a trilogy, never been done before. What are you doing saying that you're gonna retire? What a joke!' And so I was booing her for that."
Pena is optimistic about Nunes coming back to the UFC, and when asked if she thinks 'The Lioness' would return to the octagon, she said:
"I give it three days time."
Catch Julianna Pena's comments below:
Julianna Pena shares timeline for her potential fight against Raquel Pennington
The vacant UFC women's bantamweight championship was put on the line this past weekend at UFC 297 between Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva. Following the fight, the victor, Pennington, made it clear that she wants to fight her long-time rival, Julianna Pena, next.
Speaking about it during the same appearance on The MMA Hour, Pena revealed that she is eyeing a summer date to return to the octagon. She said:
"I would say one of those two dates, the first week of June or the third week in July. I asked for International Fight Week. They said no. They said that that date wasn't available. They did say however if anything changes, they would let me know about International Fight Week. The location I think would be a really big key factor for me."
Catch Julianna Pena's comments below:
