Julianna Pena confidently states that the eventual winner of the upcoming title fight between Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva will simply be “warming the belt” until her return to action. Her comment suggests that she firmly believes she will reclaim the title upon her return. Pennington and Silva are slated to face off in the co-main event at UFC 297 which is set to take place on January 20th at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. The women’s bantamweight title will be up for grabs in this match. Many found the decision surprising, considering that Pena was absent from the roster. Pena has been the only other female to hold the 135-pound title, sharing the honor with Amanda Nunes in recent years.
Pena is well-known for her surprising victory over Nunes at UFC 269 in 2021, which was hailed as one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport. However, she lost the title to Nunes in a lopsided rematch the following year. Afterward, she was set to face Nunes for a trilogy clash at UFC 289 in June, but an undisclosed injury forced her withdrawal. Nunes went on to a dominant win over a replacement, Irene Aldana, before she decided to retire.
Pena went public with the fact that her absence from the UFC 297 title fight was due to her recovery from injury. Even so, she is quite confident that she will be next in line to fight for the title against the winner of the Pennington vs. Silva match. For strategic reasons, Pena chose not to elaborate on the nature of her injury. Pena recently stated on “The MMA Hour, “I’m sorry you guys are going to be force-fed this horrible interim title fight – it’s going to be interim because they’re belt warming until I come back… My next fight will be for a title. Whoever wins between those two chicks, I’ll be fighting the winner.” Pena adds, “I know that everyone didn’t believe me when I said I had to fall out when I was fighting Amanda but I did have an injury and I’m still trying to heal from that… I won’t be back until summer.”