Julianna Pena: I’m The Only Other Girl That’s Wrecking Girls Like Ronda Is

Anxious to regain the momentum she built up during her dominant run to The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 18 title, women’s bantamweight Julianna Pena will finally return to the Octagon after 15 months off when she battles Milana Dudieva at this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 63 from the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia.

Pena was initially thought to be out for up to two years after suffering damage to her ACL, MCL, LCL, and meniscus. However, doctors have informed her that she would be able to make a return to full strength and resume her fighting career this weekend.

But just returning to the cage isn’t close to enough for the goal-oriented Pena, who has her sights set on the top of the UFC women’s bantamweight landscape.

“The Venezuelan Vixen” may suffer from some degree of ring rust, and she’s lost two out of her last three official mixed martial arts (MMA) bouts, yet she looked nothing less than spectacular in dismantling Shayna Baszler, Sarah Moras, and finally Jessica Rakoczy on TUF.

Appearing on this week’s UFC Tonight, Pena got the talk about her one day facing dominant champion Ronda Rousey by stirring the pot with a recalling of their bad blood on opposite teams on the TUF:

“Oh, I think that, first off, we could see we didn’t rub each other the right way on The Ultimate Fighter, we kind of had some words and she said I didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as Shayna and that I needed to be going to Shayna’s seminars and learning from her.”

Show co-host Daniel Cormier remarked that facing Rousey was an extremely lofty goal considering she only just won TUF and then suffered the biggest setback of her career. According to Pena, many people have already told her they want to see her face Rousey based on their shared trait of finishing fights with relentless efficiency:

“A lot of people during my time off have always constantly, from what I get back, have said that they want to see that fight happen. I feel like during The Ultimate Fighter, I finished all four girls, it wasn’t decision fighting, it wasn’t point sparring, it was a finish and it was a brutal finish every single time and it was very obvious, and Ronda’s the only other girl that’s going in there and wrecking girls in devastating fashion like that.”

Pena may have a strong argument there, but she’s still going to have to pick up some impressive wins to get to Rousey. “The Venezuelan Vixen” saw how Rousey’s new opponent Bethe Correia beat two of “Rowdy’s” teammates and talked her way to a shot, however, so she believes if she can get past Dudieva this weekend and keep winning fights like she was before her injury, then there will be nowhere else to go but to a title shot:

“I think that after getting a few wins; let me be clear, I’m not looking past Milana at all, but I definitely want to climb the ranks and I want to deserve the title shot, so it’s not like I feel like I can just jump in there. Ronda’s not really on my sights right now. But in the near future, absolutely. She’s the one with the belt, and I feel like after I get a couple more wins, and rack up a few wins, and fight girls that are in the top 5, then I should be able to, if I can get past those girls, make it to a title.”