Juliana Pena rips Amanda Nunes for retiring at UFC 289
UFC double champion Amanda Nunes called it a career at UFC 289 after defeating Irene Aldana in a one-sided fight. If you thought would end the rivalry between Julianna Pena and Nunes, you thought wrong.
After Nunes retired, Pena took to Twitter to get some digs in before Nunes walked out the door.
I’ll take that as a compliment #ufc289 @ufc
— Julianna Peña (@VenezuelanVixen) June 11, 2023
I scared you so bad into retirement. Personally, Congratulations. Professionally, wtf was that? #UFC289
— Julianna Peña (@VenezuelanVixen) June 11, 2023
Canadians don’t boo, they just walked out quietly before The fight was over #ufc289 #snoozefest #terrible #stinker #ducking
— Julianna Peña (@VenezuelanVixen) June 11, 2023
The beef between Julianna Pena and Amanda Nunes has been a constant in women’s MMA. Although, it really became notable when Pena beat Sara McMann at UFC 257 and called out Nunes. From there, the pair had two bouts.
In the first, Pena completed one of the biggest upsets of all time as she submitted Nunes in the second round. As a result, she took the UFC women’s bantamweight title from Nunes. In the second, Nunes regained the belt as she dominated Nunes over five rounds.
At UFC 289, Pena and Nunes were originally set to complete the trilogy. The bout was signed and announced, but Pena was forced to withdraw with a rib injury. Aldana then filled her place in the main event.
All things considered, it is strange to see Pena declare that Nunes is scared and retired because she does not want the trilogy fight. After all, Nunes agreed to fight Pena at UFC 289 and she was in the octagon at the event. That is not to say Pena is ducking, because she is not, but Nunes proved she was willing to fight Pena a third time.
Nunes had added her fair share of trash talk to this rivalry as well. In the build-up to UFC 289, she said she refused to with Pena as champion because she is not that good. In the UFC 289 post-fight press conference, she addressed Pena’s comments while dismissing her rival.
“What do I say about that girl?” Nunes said. “She was supposed to be here. I was supposed to beat her tonight again. She was the one who doesn’t know how to (train), breaking the ribs, what am I going to do about it?”
Quote via TheScore
Hopefully, this will serve as a last hurrah in the rivalry between Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena. That is unlikely though — it’s more likely that Pena takes a victory lap while pointing to her victory despite losing the rematch. More notable, the scorecards for the rematch saw Pena win with scores of 50-45, 50-44, and 50-43. That is the definition of domination.
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