Julianna Peña still has her eyes on UFC gold.
Peña (13-6 MMA, 8-4 UFC) lost her bantamweight title to Kayla Harrison (19-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) by submission at UFC 316 in June. Harrison is expected to welcome Amanda Nunes back to the octagon for her first title defense, and Peña hopes she can face the winner.
But who would she rather fight again?
“I think a trilogy with Amanda would be the best case scenario just because we have shared so much time inside the octagon, but then I would also love to fight Kayla again because I know that I can beat her,” Peña said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.”
“I feel like given the circumstances that I’ve been facing for these injuries that I’ve been trying to get over the hump and get inside the octagon and actually fight, I think if I could get into a fight camp healthy with having all of these injuries healed, I can beat her. I know I can.”
Peña split her two appearances against Nunes (23-5 MMA, 16-2 UFC), scoring an upset submission in their first fight at UFC 269, then losing a lopsided decision in their rematch at UFC 277. Looking at the landscape at 135 pounds, Peña doesn’t think it’s impossible to find herself in another title bout in her next fight.
“I haven’t seen anybody else say that they want to fight Amanda or Kayla except me,” Peña said. “I’m willing to fight either one of them. If I could jump right into an immediate rematch with either one of them, I think that would be the best-case scenario. I don’t see any roadblocks to it, but maybe the promotion has other ideas. I’m not sure.”
Peña was asked to give her prediction for the matchup between Harrison and Nunes.
“My head says Amanda, and my heart says Kayla, so I don’t know,” Peña said. “May the best woman win. I don’t have anything personally against either one of them.”
