Julianna Pena Injured; Irene Aldana Steps in to Challenge Amanda Nunes at UFC 289

It may not be how she envisioned, but Irene
Aldana is now facing the opportunity of a lifetime.

On Tuesday, Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana
White revealed in a Twitter video that bantamweight title
challenger Julianna
Pena had been forced to withdraw from her rubber match with
Amanda
Nunes at UFC 289 on June 10, due to
broken ribs. White announced that Nunes would instead be defending
her title against Irene
Aldana, who had previously been scheduled to rematch Raquel
Pennington in the main event of UFC Fight Night 224 on May
20.

The Nunes-Pena fight would have settled a series that sat at 1-1.
At their first meeting at UFC 269 in December 2021, Pena turned the
longtime two-division champ into a one-division champ, snatching
Nunes’ bantamweight strap by second-round submission in a
near-consensus “Upset of the Year,” and one of the biggest-ever UFC
title fight upsets. The “Lioness” got her revenge last July at UFC
277, regaining the belt by unanimous decision in a one-sided
drubbing. The rematch was clear-cut enough that some observers questioned the
need for a trilogy, including Nunes herself, who
admitted that she had been expecting her next challenger to be
Aldana. The 35-year-old Mexican will enter her title bid on a
two-fight winning streak and having won four of five since losing a
split decision to Pennington in their first meeting nearly four
years ago. Aldana’s most recent appearance, last September at UFC
279, saw her stop Macy
Chiasson with a rare upkick to the body in a 140-pound
catchweight contest.

UFC 289 takes place on June 10 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver,
British Columbia. It is scheduled to be headlined by the
Nunes-Aldana bantamweight title fight, with a probable lightweight
title eliminator bout between former champ Charles
Oliveira and Beneil
Dariush set for the co-main event. The event will mark the Las
Vegas-based promotion’s first trek north of the border since Sept.
14, 2019, when Justin
Gaethje and Donald
Cerrone headlined UFC Fight Night 158 at the very same Rogers
Arena.