Kayla Harrison responds to Julianna Pena’s PED accusations “Excuse for when I kick her ass.”

ByTimothy Wheaton
Kayla Harrison UFC Julianna Peña

Kayla Harrison was twelve years old the first time she was tested for performance-enhancing drugs by USADA. She was ranked in the top five nationally in Judo and has been tested frequently ever since. This includes multiple Olympic runs plus fighting in the UFC. The US-born athlete did not take kindly to Julianna Pena’s PED accusations.

Kayla Harrison and Julianna Pena

Kayla Harrison is a multi-time Olympic medalist representing the USA, competing in Judo all around the world. Since switching to MMA she earned the PFL MMA tournament title in two separate years. Earlier in 2024, the American athlete signed with the UFC and had an impressive win over the former champion Holly Holm.

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Julianna Pena is a former division champion who had an upset victory over all-time great Amanda Nunes. “The Venezuelan Vixen” would later lose her title in a rematch with Nunes.

Brazil’s Nunes then retired with the division championship. This title is now held by the US-born Raquel Pennington who defeated Mayra Bueno Silva for the vacant throne. But fans are looking for a showdown between the former champion and the current star of the division, a match between Julianna Pena and the 34-year-old Kayla Harrison. These two have been trash-talking back and forth for some time now.

Pena, in an interview with Ariel Helwani last week, said, “Stay off the needle, bro… No question.” Accusing Kayla Harrison of being on PED’s.

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In response, while speaking on The MMA Hour, Harrison said, “Haters gonna hate, dude. It pisses me off. Never once have I tested positive ever in the history of my very long drug-testing career. Don’t f*cking say things like if you don’t have hard evidence… She’s building in an excuse for when I kick her ass.” She added, “I’ve never failed a single test,” in her lifelong athletic career.

Harrison does not care about facing Pena, instead, she wants to face whoever has the belt, whether it is Pena or Pennington. Her eyes are on UFC gold.

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Timothy Wheaton is a combat sports writer who covers MMA, Kickboxing, and Muay Thai. He has been an avid follower of these sports since 2005. Tim has even covered the UFC, GLORY, PFL, Bellator, and more, in person at live events.

With Low Kick MMA, Tim has contributed interviews, articles, and podcasts.

Tim also works with a host of other media sites such as Calf Kick Sports, Sportskeeda MMA, Combat Press, Fighters Only, MMA Sucka, Vecht Sport Info, and Beyond Kickboxing. Tim is the authority on kickboxing and an MMA journalist who has covered K-1, PRIDE FC, UFC, GLORY Kickboxing, Bellator, PFL, ONE Championship, and plenty more.

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