When former Ultimate Fighter champion Julianna Pena spoke with TMZ.com last week, she claimed that “no one cares about Ronda Rousey and her fat arms anymore.” After she was flooded with criticism and hate mail from fans who pointed out that Rousey has had a history with body image issues and the eating disorder bulimia, she would sing a different tune, even if it was technically the same genre’ of music — insult-tunes.
Pena, who is coming off the biggest win of her professional MMA career, a victory over former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Title contender Cat Zingano at the historic UFC 200 event last month, spoke with MMAJunkie.com this week and admitted that she chose the wrong words, while still delivering some pretty harsh criticism of the former champion after reminding fans how she was treated by her when she competed opposite her team on TUF 18.
Pena, who won TUF 18 as part of Miesha Tate’s team, recalled “how much of a b*tch” Rousey was to her during the filming of the season.
“I think a lot of people have forgotten how rude and how much of a bitch she was to me on the show and the way that she treated me personally. Those are things that I don’t forget. She’s disrespected me, and she’s disrespected my coach on the show. They ask about her all the time – ‘is she coming back, is she coming back’ – and I don’t know. But I would love to introduce her back into the division if she is, because that’s been a fight that I’ve been trying to get for many years now.”
As Pena continued, she brought up Rousey’s boyfriend, UFC Heavyweight contender Travis “Hapa” Browne, who she referred to as a “giant” when questioning whether “Rowdy” Ronda is coming back to the Octagon, returning to training in the gym or “having that giant’s babies.”
“I think it was the wrong choice of words. What was in my head didn’t come out exactly the way I wanted it to through the media. I’m not trying to call her a fat person – I was basically commenting on how the media is always asking about her, whether she’s training or not, whether she’s coming back or not, whether she’s having that giant’s babies or not, and it’s so annoying at this point that I’m just like, forget about it. The buzz has died.
“I’m just saying the things that sometimes I feel these people are thinking. And the truth of the matter is, UFC, I’m sorry, she’s just not that into you. I am into the UFC, and I want to fight for the belt. This chick is standing in my way and teasing everyone whether she’s coming back or not, so I’ve had enough. I’ve literally had it up to here with this chick.”
