Julianna Pena ‘would love’ rematch with Valentina Shevchenko at flyweight

Julianna Pena hopes to topple another all-time great after defeating Amanda Nunes at UFC 269.

Nunes went unbeaten for six years and 12 fights until meeting Pena this past Saturday night. For Pena, however, she’d tasted defeat as recently as October 2020 when faced with former featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie. Before that, Pena’s most recent loss came in 2017 against a currently dominant flyweight queen, Valentina Shevchenko.

“I think that there’s some rematches that I want to do,” Pena told the media following her win at UFC 269. “I would like to go down and rematch Valentina Shevchenko. I would love to get that rematch against Germaine de Randamie. I would love a rematch, if that’s what she wants, against Amanda Nunes. Those are the rematches that I have in my peripheral.”

A second-round rear-naked choke submission earned the 32-year old Julianna Pena (11-4) her first career UFC title. The win goes down as one of the biggest upsets in MMA history and due to Nunes’ legendary status, an instant rematch is likely ahead before all else.

“We can do it next week, I’m free next month, two months from now. Whenever they want to do it, I’m ready,” Pena said of rematching Nunes. “No, in all fairness, I’ve been in camp for a year. I really think that my daughter deserves some well-deserved mommy time, a little vacation. After that, definitely. If she wants to do a rematch, we can do a rematch.

“I’ve always been a company girl. Whatever they always point me in the direction of, I’ll go. You point, I shoot. So whatever they wanna do.”