UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Julianna Peña isn’t fazed by her underdog status for the expected clash against Kayla Harrison this year.
Peña and Harrison, who’ve long gone back and forth regarding a potential fight, appeared to set up their inevitable future showdown by emerging victorious at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City last month.
While “The Venezeulan Vixen” secured a widely debated decision over Raquel Pennington to return to the 135-pound throne, the two-time PFL titleholder and Olympic gold medalist outpointed Ketlen Vieira earlier in the night to move to 2-0 in her UFC debut year.
Though the champ has pushed for Amanda Nunes to return from retirement for their trilogy, it seems she’ll be tasked with stalling Harrison’s surge toward the top sometime this summer.
The oddsmakers, for one, don’t seem to believe that is likely. The opening lines placed Peña as a huge +700 underdog.
During an appearance on the OverDogs Podcast, the bantamweight queen reacted to those odds, outlining the edge she has over heavy favorite Harrison.
“I think that one of the reasons why I’m a 7-1 underdog, or why I always get overlooked, or why people are always counting me out, is maybe I’m not the most technically sound,” Peña said. “(Maybe I don’t) make everything perfect, where I’m so technical. But I’ve always had this one thing that has set me apart from everybody else, and that is my mindset. And I’ve never put a ceiling on myself as far as what I’m capable of doing. I’ve always believed that I can.
“When you have that mental toughness of, ‘I don’t care what you do, I’m still going to get up and still keep coming at you a million miles an hour,’ you’re going to have to literally cut my head off to get me to stop, because I’m not going to stop.”
A date remains unconfirmed for Peña’s first title defense since regaining the gold at Pennington’s expense in 2024.
