Amanda Nunes’ path of destruction over the past seven years has fueled the widely-embraced viewpoint that she’s a GOAT mixed martial artist.
But Julianna Pena isn’t sold on that sentiment swelling any further. Entering Saturday night’s UFC 269, where she’ll challenge for Nunes’ bantamweight championship, Pena insists that "The Lioness’" true character lies in her last loss and not her active 12-fight winning streak.
Pena is ready to incorporate some of that intel and she’s not going to stop talking about it — among other things — until they’re locked up in the Octagon at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas this weekend.
“I think that when the going gets tough and the tough gets going and you put the amount of pressure on a fighter — a certain fighter— and you’ve seen them cave and curl up in the fetal position, that’s something that’s still is in them,” Pena tells DAZN News, referring to the last time Nunes tasted defeat via a sobering September 2014 TKO loss to the same Cat Zingano that she beat in July 2016. “It still lives in them.
“My job is to go out there and bring that out and find that breaking point and find that part of the button that makes her want to quit and get out of there,” she continues. “That’s my job. That’s my goal.”
“The Venezuelan Vixen” talked her way into the fight with Nunes and has jawed enough for the reigning women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion to call Pena “delusional,” as reported by TMZ Sports.
Whether Pena seemingly irking Nunes throws the double champ off her game or backfires royally remains to be seen. With two more sleeps until the fight, Nunes is installed as a -1000 favorite to Pena’s +600 underdog status according to BetMGM.
Pena’s longtime trainer Rick Little thinks oddsmakers, critics and fans alike aren’t realizing that his 32-year-old charge stacks up against the perceived GOAT better than they might think.
He likens it to the buildup of the November 1996 mega bout between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, where Holyfield produced a riveting 11-round TKO of the knockout artist. Little believes Pena can be Holyfield this weekend.
“Back when Holyfield was supposed to fight Tyson, nobody gave Holyfield a chance,” Little asserts. “But if they were deep in the game of boxing and saw the chumps that Tyson was beating and all the tough fights Holyfield had, then they would have known this was a fight. There was a fight there that people didn’t know was a fight.
“Julianna,” he continues, “her resume is almost as impressive in a different way.”
Little cites the “murderers’ row” that Pena chewed through en route to becoming the first woman to win “The Ultimate Fighter” show in 2013, having only lost twice since.
“Valentina Shevchenko — she had her dead in the water,” says Little, addressing one of Pena’s losses in the UFC. “Deep armbar end of round one. She finishes that all the time in the gym. I don’t know why she didn’t finish but she just barely missed.
“Same story with (Germaine de) Randamie,” he tacks on. “(Pena) was winning that fight. Had her in a deep choke which 99 percent of the population taps to. I believe that even Amanda taps to it. She’s shown a history of having everyone in trouble. She’s taken down every single girl she’s ever fought, she’s put every girl she ever fought in submissions. She’s put every girl in that Octagon in big trouble."
Despite Nunes having defeated de Randamie and Shevchenko twice each, Little isn't quite sure that the double champ measures up to those contenders in one category.
“I don’t think that Amanda has the same level of survivability as a Germaine and Valentina,” he adds for good measure. “Her offense may be a little better, her aggression might be the all-time best but we’ve never seen Amanda put in these positions and Julianna has a history of putting everybody in these positions.”
Little tabs statistics that possibly add to the intrigue of Saturday night’s matchup as well.
“They’re looking at one side of it — The Tyson side, the Amanda Nunes’ side that she gets everybody in trouble," he says. "Amanda has the highest knockout rate in women’s history. Guess who’s the least-hit girl in the history of the UFC? Julianna. She’s the least-hit in the history of sport — 1.7 strikes per minute is her rate of getting hit. On paper, we have a very even fight and people don’t see that.”
Those just-missed opportunities against Shevchenko and de Randamie might have bolstered Pena’s experience enough to generate the biggest win of her career in her most important fight to date.
“When you put in the work and you put in the time and you put in the effort and pour your whole heart into something, there’s no other option than for victory and to get your hand raised,” Pena exclaims. “So, I’m confident that I put in the work and the time and that’s what I feel makes me so confident. I’ve left no stone unturned and I’m just ready to go in there and get the job done.”
Daylight is about to give way to nightfall on the talking Pena has needed to spout to manufacture this bout and perhaps speak her full self-belief into existence. But Pena insists the garrulous approach isn’t merely bluster.
“I’m not talking s—t in my opinion,” she vows. “I feel like I’m just telling my truth and the truth that’s happened to me since coming onto the scene and winning my fight at UFC 200 (against Zingano).
“It may be viewed as talking crap to other people and talking a mess but this is actually my truth,” she doubles down with. “These are facts that have happened in my career and facts that have happened in my life. I said what I said to get the fight. The fight is here and it’s finally time to put up or shut up.
“There’s no more talking. It’s do or die time and it’s time to go to work.”
If that work leads to victory at UFC 269, Pena will deliver her greatest soundbites yet.