TUF Winner Pena Breaks Injury Silence – Recounts Incident That Forced UFC Sideline

“I don’t think I accidentally explained it incorrectly to [Dana White] — I think I explained it 110 percent exactly how the story went…. What happened was, I wasn’t even wearing an Ultimate Fighter shirt … because the kid told me he thought it was an Ultimate Fighter rash guard. But, here’s the thing, it’s a gray rash guard, okay? It had a little UFC emblem on it. I was wearing that, I was late. So, when I got there, he was like ‘hurry up, let’s go.’ So, I get on the mat, I hit the clock, and he says, ‘Oh, you’re wearing your Ultimate Fighter rash guard. I was like, what’s that supposed to mean? ‘That you’re really tough, I’m really scared.’ I’m like, whatever, and we slapped hands, and a minute later, my knee was tore out.”

“Normally, in the gym, when there’s tons of people we start on our knees, you know there’s not enough room. But, in this instance, it was just me and him on the mat. No one was there, and we slapped hands, and we started going, but right when we started going, it was like ‘Urghh!’ fighting for your life, just cock strong, you know, both of us, and I was like, ‘you’re not taking me down, bro.’ And he wasn’t, so, he was trying to take me down as much as he could. So, I had my shoulder blades up against the back wall, and he’s trying to rear-naked choke me from the side of my body. It’s not even close, and it pissed me off, and I’m like, be technical. Don’t try to cock strong, you know? I was turning into him, and he was trying to drag me to the ground and rear-naked choke me at the same time, just trying to use all of his weight to try to drop me to the ground. So, when I turned into it, it was just the amount of force — it just blew.”

Following a fantastic run on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, the first ever female champion of the UFC’s reality series, hurt herself so bad that she has yet to make her post-TUF UFC debut.

UFC President Dana White called the incident, gross and horrific, and now for the first time since she was hurt, Pena discussed the incident with her first-hand account of what went down.

(quote via The Jason Ellis Show)