Julianna Pena: 'I have many more paths to | MMA News
The UFC 316 co-main occasion at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Saturday options a extremely anticipated ladies’s bantamweight title bout between champion Julianna Pena (12-5) and No. 2 ranked contender Kayla Harrison (18-1).
Harrison is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in Judo. She’s the previous two-time Professional Fighters League (PFL) ladies’s light-weight champion. She cuts a lot of weight to make the 135-pound restrict and pale in her final outing in the later rounds. Whoever is in a position to dictate the tempo on Saturday will play a issue in the struggle.
“I am fighting at the pace the fight comes at me, so if she comes at me guns-a-blazing, I have no choice but to defend guns-a-blazing. If she wants to try to set a pace, we can do that,” Pena informed Fox Sports Australia.
“The great thing about me is that wherever the fight takes place – I can win off my back. I can win off of the cage. I can win on the feet, so I have many more paths to victory than she does and I think that’s what’s going to be the determining factor in this fight for me.”
Harrison only has one blemish on her file. She misplaced to Larissa Pacheco via unanimous choice at PFL 10 in November 2022. Pena believes Harrison’s 18-1 file was ‘padded’ before she arrived in the UFC.
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“If you look at her beginning record, she’s fighting girls that have really poor records, or no fight experience, or they never fought again after they fought her. I don’t take into consideration too much all of these padded records,” Pena stated. “There’s other fights in there, like three five-round decisions against the same girl, and she lost one of those fights. I’m not taking into consideration too much about whole mystic of 18-1.”
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