Kayla Harrison: 'Julianna Peña rubs me the wrong way'

Newly crowned two-time women’s bantamweight champion Julianna Peña isn’t just skilled as a top level fighter, she has an uncanny knack for making contenders and former champions dislike her.  

Second-ranked contender Kayla Harrison threw her name in the hat of those that aren’t big fans of the champion on Wednesday during an appearance on UFC Unfiltered.  

“Julianna rubs me the wrong way,” Harrison said.  “She says a lot of good things.  She’s entertaining.  She’s tough as nails.  I respect her as a fighter, but it’s like, first, she talked sh*t about me when I was in the PFL.  ‘Oh, if you come to the real promotion, fight at a real weight class, if you can make 135 then we’ll talk.’  So here we are a couple of years later.  I put my money where my mouth is.  I made 135.  Then she’s like, ‘Oh, she’s on steroids.  She uses this,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay.’  

Following Peña’s UFC 307 win over Raquel Pennington to become a two-time titleholder, retired former two-time champion Amanda Nunes posted a video to social media teasing a potential return.  In her UFC 307 post-fight interview, Peña called out Nunes.  None of it made sense to Harrison, who defeated Ketlen Vieira on the same fight card.

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“It doesn’t really make sense to me.  Like, after I fought Holly [Holm], Amanda got online saying, ‘Oh, you’re not saying my name.’  And I was like, ‘Well, lady, you’re f*cking retired,'” Harrison said.  “And Julianna fights and instead of calling me out she calls out Amanda, who’s retired.  They just don’t make sense.”

“Next thing you know she’s going to be calling out Ronda [Rousey], and then she did call out Ronda on Ariel Helwani’s podcast.  She was like, ‘I’d fight Ronda Rousey,” Harrison continued.  “She says that I think that I’m a boogieman, but you’re the only one that won’t say my name.  I bleed just the same as you.  Let’s get in the cage and find out.  Let’s find out.”

When asked what’s next, Harrison replied, “Hopefully the f*cking title.”