Julianna Pena was arrested outside a bar in Spokane, Washington back in December after she allegedly delivered groin strikes to two men on the sidewalk. Pena is now looking to put the legal troubles behind her and get back inside the octagon.
“I think that they’re [UFC officials are] waiting for it all to blow over and for the matter to get handled, and then after that, I’ll be making a fight announcement,” Pena said on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour. “Hopefully I’ll have something here soon on the horizon, that’s what I’m hoping for, and I’m confident that I’ll be getting back in the Octagon shortly.”
“I have no idea [who I will face next],” she said. “This fight [Holm vs. Tate] is going to be interesting in itself, and then also you have Amanda Nunes fighting Valentina [Shevchenko] too, so it’s going to be a great night of fights, especially for these girls that are up there in the top five.
“I’m sitting at number five, and I look at it like, whoever they’re going to throw at me, it doesn’t matter. My whole issue for fights and for fighting has always been just give me the time that I feel that I need allotted in order to fight, and then you can throw in any random chick that you want. I really don’t care, just give me the time that I need to prepare.”
Pena says that when she does step back into the octagon, she deserves a title shot.
“I asked for a title shot,” Pena said. “I’ve been calling for a title shot since I got signed. I’ve been sitting here being like, ‘Title shot! Title shot!’ but they keep saying that I need one more fight, so I was told we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. They told me they want me to fight one more time, but at the same time, I think they don’t really know what’s going on either until both of those girls get in the fight and get locked in the cage, and then the fight ends. It should be very interesting for the women’s bantamweight division coming up here on March 5.”
- Julianna Pena: Women Deserve “10 Times More Pay” Than Men
