Julianna Pena explains why Raquel Pennington “has not been a good representation of the women’s bantamweight division” ahead of UFC 307

Julianna Pena has explained why she hasn’t been a big fan of Raquel Pennington’s run as UFC women’s bantamweight champion.

As we know, Julianna Pena is a former UFC champion. In addition to that, she’s also one of the biggest names in the bantamweight division.

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This weekend, she’ll attempt to reclaim the gold when she challenges Raquel Pennington for the crown. Of course, Pennington is the rightful champ, but many believe that Pena should be seen as the favorite heading into this contest.

In a recent interview, Pena explained why she hasn’t been a big fan of Pennington’s reign as champion.

Pena’s Pennington view

“Raquel has not been a good representation of the women’s bantamweight division,” Peña told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday’s UFC 307 media day. “She has not promoted. She has said no to ‘Embedded.’ She has constantly done everything that she can to avoid being the face of women’s MMA and not being that big face who wants to promote and be that big representation of women’s MMA.

“That, to me, is you’re showing me nothing, but you’re telling me everything by not being that person that is letting everyone know that you’re fighting. I want to be that person. That’s my role, and I can do it better, and that’s why I believe I am going to be able to seal the deal on Saturday night and get that gold again.”

“Every single fight that I fight is the biggest fight of my life. But I feel like, especially at this day and age, the window of fighting for me narrows day-by-day-by-day. I am not no spring chicken no more. I’m not 21 years old. But with that being said comes experience, comes a bit of wiseness in the game. I feel like every fight is the biggest fight of my life, but especially this one because I am going for gold again, and you’re not going to get 100 chances to fight for the belt.

“It took me a long time of calling for the belt to want to get to this point. Now that I’m at this point it’s to maintain and I’m always going to be in these championship fights. So these are gigantic fights for me and I’m going to do everything that I can to seize the moment.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie

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