Julianna
Pena wants to deliver justice to Raquel
Pennington for being a bad roommate.
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Pena challenges Pennington for the women’s bantamweight throne in
the co-main event at UFC 307
on Saturday at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. While this
is the first time they will square off in the Octagon, Pena and
Tate previously spent a lot of time together representing Team
Miesha
Tate against Team Ronda
Rousey on “The Ultimate Fighter 18” in 2013.
It became evident during the course of the season that Pena and
Pennington weren’t the best of buddies. Although they were
seemingly always on a collision course, the matchup never
materialized until now. Along with the lure of winning a title for
the second time, Pena also has the chance to avenge alleged
transgressions by “Rocky” during their time at the “TUF 18”
house.
Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order
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“Raquel and I have had our history of little spats,” Pena recently
told CBS Sports. “If you watch ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ she
was doing things and saying things that I didn’t agree with. And it
gets to be one of those—I don’t know if you saw that Netflix series
‘Worst Roommate Ever’—where they just have these like terrible
roommates. And I’m like, ‘I’m doing all of your dishes, I’m giving
you makeovers, I’m teaching you how to walk like a runway model.
Why are you so horrible to me? Why are you making my life a living
hell?’ For me, it’s just like what do you do when you’re doing
everybody’s dishes and living with the worst roommate ever. You
just want to slap them. So for me, it’s one of those things where I
would just much rather get it over with. This has been 13 years in
the making, and it’s time for the worst roommate ever to get their
due justice.”
Pena won the bantamweight title against Amanda
Nunes at UFC 269 in 2021, marking one of the greatest upsets of
all time. She would lose the belt in a rematch at UFC 277 the next
year via a lopsided unanimous decision. While a trilogy was
scheduled for UFC 289 in 2023, Pena was forced out due to a rib
injury. Pena was replaced by Irene
Aldana, whom Nunes defeated via unanimous decision before
hanging up her gloves. Pennington won the vacant title with a
unanimous decision win over Mayra
Bueno Silva at UFC 297 this past January, extending her winning
streak to six.