The UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Julianna Pena, wasn’t content just to talk trash to her UFC 277 opponent, Amanda Nunes. She felt it necessary to blast both the women’s featherweight division, where Nunes is still champ, and the flyweight division, slamming 125-pound champ Valentina Shevchenko while she was at it. As “The Venezuelan Vixen” told Yahoo Sports, 135 pounds is the only real division in women’s MMA.
“For the most part, the (145-pound) division – which has two people in it, honestly I really can’t name more than two – is just girls in the 35 that don’t want to cut weight so then they just move up to 45.
Then they had to create a whole other division at 125 because Valentina couldn’t beat Amanda two times, so then they went and cut weight and created a division for her to move down to 125. The real fights, the best fights are at 135.”
Julianna Pena has a point. The women’s featherweight division effectively existed so Amanda Nunes could take on Cris “Cyborg”, but with Cyborg long gone from the UFC, it looks startlingly empty compared to bantamweight. Valentina Shevchenko did lose to Nunes twice at bantamweight, although Shevchenko has since gone on to dominate the 125-pound division.
Julianna Pena herself managed to defeat Nunes back in December, capturing the bantamweight strap for herself in the process. With a long-awaited rematch between the two looming at UFC 277, Pena anticipates another decisive victory. If all goes according to plan, she’ll take on a long list of the division’s best fighters, all looking to take on the woman who dethroned the lioness.
“Now that I’ve become the champion, I’ve opened up the door to a whole list of girls that are gunning for a shot at me.
That is what I wanted. That is what I called for, and I’m in this division to fight the best of the best, so I’ve got a lot of work to be done at 135 before I start being lazy and not wanting to make the weight class anymore.”
Of course, that plan hinges on Pena winning again. Most betting odds have Nunes as a heavy favorite once more, and most analysts are predicting a victory for Nunes. Pena, however, is no stranger to adversity, and may well implement the same patient, jab-happy game plan as last time, earning herself a title defense.
Is Julianna Pena right about the rest of the women’s weight classes? Let us know in the comments.
