UFC women’s bantamweight contender Kayla Harrison is not looking forward to getting an earful from champion Julianna Peña in the lead-up to their expected showdown.
Harrison and Peña both had their hands raised at the UFC 307 pay-per-view in Salt Lake City, Utah earlier this month, seemingly setting up a long-discussed clash between the pair in 2025.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist was the first to emerge victorious, outpointing Ketlen Vieira on the main card to move to 2-0 under the UFC banner. “The Venezuelan Vixen” later made the walk for the co-main event, in which she dethroned Raquel Pennington to win back the 135-pound title.
Although Peña has attempted to draw Amanda Nunes back from retirement to complete their trilogy next, Harrison is no doubt the consensus number one contender and appears likely to compete with gold on the line in her third UFC fight.
While that is no doubt music to the two-time PFL champ’s ears, she outlined during an appearance on Tuesday’s episode of The Ariel Helwani Show on Uncrowned that not everything about gearing up to challenge for the belt is positive…
Harrison — who went back and forth with the newly crowned bantamweight queen during the pre-fight press conference for UFC 307 — shared a sentiment common among Peña’s opponents when it comes to the verbal sparring she’s anticipating.
“I just don’t care. I mean, it’s going to be more exciting and more fun to whoop her ass,” Harrison said when asked if she was happy that Peña won. “But she’s also like — dude, now I have to listen to her talk.”
It remains to be seen when Harrison will get her shot at adding UFC title glory to an already illustrious résumé in combat sports.
While the Ohio native — who has dubbed herself the “uncrowned queen” in the 135-pound division — says she’ll soon be ready to go, the champ recently pointed to International Fight Week in the summer of 2025 as her desired return date.
