Julianna Pena (6-2) kommer en TKO-vinst över Milana Dudieva (11-4) och har vunnit båda sina matcher i UFC, men Pena har inte bråttom till en titelchans, utan vill hellre bygga upp sin hype mer.
Pena vill hellre gå flera matcher innan en titelchans och vill att fans ska vilja se en match mellan henne och Ronda Rousey (11-0).
”They lot of words into my mouth all the time and they always want to bring up Ronda all the time and they always want to make it look like I have this massive beef with her,” berättade Peña för Ariel Helwani. ”My issue is that I want to be a champion one day and I didn’t get into this sport to be a top ten fighter. I feel like the best approach for me is to continue to take fights and build my name out there, build some hype, and to get people interested in a fight like that. That way I can be more financially set up for myself in the future when that time does come, and I think that only happens by taking more fights.”
”And so, It’s not like I think I can just leapfrog everybody and just be like, oh I beat this girl, give me a title shot. I’m not crazy, and I’m not selfish like that. So I think it just makes sense to give me a couple more fights, and then if the boss says ‘ok, you ready,’ then I’m ready. I’ll do whatever they tell me to.”
Pena var borta i över ett och ett halvt år från tävling då hon skadade sitt knä allvarligt.
”I think it was a big misunderstanding, the whole situation of what happened with my knee,” sa Peña. ”I made the mistake of calling [Dana] bawling my eyes out on the way to the hospital. Of course, after coming off the show he was just frantic, and that was just the way things panned out for me. And it was a little unfortunate, but like I said, it was a misunderstanding.”
”I think that [Dana] knows that it’s awesome and cool of me to stay loyal to my gym that’s raised me from a babe,” sa hon. ”You know I’ve never been anywhere else. I walked into Rick Little’s gym having never thrown a punch in my life or having competed in combat sports before, so I think that it’s awesome that I’ve been able to take it this far and to stick with my coach.”
Pena menar att det inte är hennes stil att göra en call out, att ropa ut någon som hon vill möta.
”If you put time on the mat, and you work hard, then it doesn’t matter if you’re training in a hole in the wall — which is where we used to train — or training in the most state of the art facilities, hard work pays off. And mat time is the key is, so as I long as I’m doing that, I shouldn’t have a problem.”
”It’s not my style to call anybody out, or to do that kind of thing,” sa hon. ”I heard a couple of rumors but I’ll keep that under wraps and let Sean Shelby and Dana White do their job.
