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Julianna Pena challenged Amanda Nunes for the women's bantamweight title in the co-main event at UFC 269. 'The Venezuelan Vixen' defeated the 'Lioness' via second-round submission, causing one of the greatest upsets in combat sports history.
However, former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov seemed unimpressed by Pena's spectacular victory. During an Eagle FC press conference, 'The Eagle' was asked about including a women's division in his promotion.
Nurmagomedov responded by saying women's MMA still needs to make significant growth. According to Nurmagomedov, Pena's upset win over Nunes was proof of the lack of high caliber female fighters. The Dagestani told reporters:
“Female fighters, like, even we can watch like UFC call Amanda Nunes is like, greatest of all time. Like, we can watch what Julianna Pena did with Amanda Nunes [at UFC 269]. But Julianna Pena, she is not like the greatest or something like that. She just beat Amanda Nunes like [on the day]. We can watch not many good [female] fighters all around the world. There are only like five or six of them.”
Watch Khabib Nurmagomedov's comments at the Eagle FC press conference below:
Julianna Pena responds to Khabib Nurmagomedov's comments
Pena harbored a lot of respect for Khabib Nurmagomedov. In the lead-up to her bout against Nunes, Pena even rebuked Ariel Helwani for comparing the 'Lioness' to 'The Eagle'.
'The Venezuelan Vixen' certainly wasn't impressed by Khabib's comments, which downplayed the biggest moment of her career.
In a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, Pena recently revealed that she was left heartbroken by Khabib's comments. Pena told Rogan:
“I saw in a presser that they asked [Khabib] a question and he was just completely downgrading the whole win and everything like that. it totally broke my heart... I was like, ‘Dude, you’re breaking my heart, man. Like, I freaking love you. Like, seriously.' He must be friends with Kayla Harrison or something. I don’t know. Because he was like, ‘If this is the top of women’s division, it’s a joke.' I mean, it wasn’t very nice. I didn’t appreciate it, Khabib."
