UFC desk analyst Chael Sonnen doesn’t believe Julianna Pena was genuine with her post-fight call out of Amanda Nunes at UFC 307.
In the immediate aftermath of Bruce Buffer shouting “and new” for Peña (13-5 MMA, 8-3 UFC) as the split decision winner over Raquel Pennington to reclaim the women’s bantamweight title, “The Venezuelan Vixen” responded to a question from Joe Rogan about who she wants next.
Throughout the build of the event, Olympic gold medalist and two-time PFL champion Kayla Harrison was propped up as the next title challenger, should she defeat Ketlen Vieira in the main card opener. Harrison (18-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) was also tabbed as the backup for the title fight, should something have gone wrong during fight week.
Harrison’s services as a backup were unnecessary, and she took care of business against Vieira, dominating the fight when it hit the ground.
Peña had the opportunity to put cut a fantastic promo on the potential showdown against Harrison, but instead, she hit everyone with a swerve, calling out Nunes, who is now retired.
Peña and Nunes are 1-1 in title fights, so a rubber match would make sense on paper. However, aside from all-emoji tweets from Nunes, there is no indication she will be returning to action.
As the two-time bantamweight champ carried on with her call out of Nunes, a split screen showed Harrison’s reaction backstage, who motioned with her fingers that Peña was running from her.
Sonnen found the shout hilarious.
“That’s a troll job!” Sonnen said laughing during the UFC 307 post-fight show. “That’s a troll job! Amanda’s not even in the organization. If she comes back, she’d like to start at 145 – I mean, not for nothing, the division’s gone. We got a lot of room between those two fighting.
“It’s obviously Kayla. Peña knows it’s Kayla, which is great. … That was a troll job, and it was very well done.”
Sonnen then harkened back to when former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley pulled a similar move on Merab Dvalishvili, by calling out Ilia Topuria instead. Ultimately, the fight between O’Malley and Dvalishvili came together, and the latter won the showdown at UFC 306 at Sphere in Las Vegas.
During a post-fight press conference, Peña ensured her ambition was real by doubling down on her call out of Nunes. She stated she believed the former two-division champion retired too early and does not know what she wants to do with her life now.
But before Peña can comfortably move on to a different challenger, Sonnen believes she may have unfinished business with Pennington (16-10 MMA, 13-6 UFC), considering the controversial nature of the judges’ scorecards in the split decision.
“I believe Kayla will get the nod, but Pennington’s back in the conversation,” Sonnen said. “There’s a lot of people, I am one of them, that believes Pennington won this fight. I picked Peña. I have a personal relationship with Peña. I was rooting for Peña. She did not win this fight, not based on what I saw.”
