"You gotta say whatever you gotta say" - Julianna Pena blasts Amanda Nunes for blaming UFC 269 loss on knee injuries

Julianna Pena isn't buying Amanda Nunes' claim that 'The Lioness' was suffering from injured knees coming into their fateful title fight at UFC 269. She does, however, understand why Nunes would make that kind of excuse.

Pena took the women's bantamweight belt off Nunes in a shocking upset that left many wondering what may have been wrong with Nunes that night. In an interview with ESPN, Nunes recently claimed that knee injuries hampered her ability to train leading up to the fight and caused the loss.

In a new interview with her hometown Spokane CBS affiliate KREM2, Pena addressed Nunes comments, saying:

“I’ve had two knee surgeries, one on each knee, you know, and I’ve never used me getting choked unconscious like ‘Oh, it was because of my knees,’ you know what I mean? So you gotta say whatever you can to motivate yourself and to pump yourself up, and to sleep at night so that you can say ‘Yes, it was my knees, and next time I’m gonna get it done.’ So you gotta say whatever you gotta say, and I understand that."

Watch the full interview with KREM2 below.

Pena and Nunes will have a chance to run it back and prove who deserves to hold the 135 pound women's title at UFC 277 on Jul 30 in Dallas, Texas.

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Julianna Pena accepted immediate rematch with Nunes to prove "the Amanda era is done"

Julianna Pena won her first fight against Amanda Nunes quite convincingly, knocking down the former champ-champ and choking her out 3:26 into the second round.

With such a clear cut end, she could have argued Nunes didn't deserve an immediate rematch. Instead, she insisted upon it. Speaking to KREM2, she said:

"People are still counting me out, people are still doubting me, people are still saying it's a fluke and she had a bad night and this, that, and the other. They have every excuse in the book for why I won. And so my whole premise behind wanting to do the rematch was just that I am here to stay, that this is my time and my era. The Amanda era is done, it's the Julianna Pena era now."

Pena will come into her rematch with Nunes with an 11-4 record and on a two fight win streak. The loss to Pena at UFC 269 dropped Nunes to 21-5 and marked the first defeat for 'The Lioness' since 2014.