It was only a matter of time earlier than Julianna Pena began making excuses.
‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ suffered a dominant submission loss in opposition to Kayla Harrison at UFC 316 earlier this month, surrendering her bantamweight world title within the course of.
Whereas Pena was seemingly humble in defeat, sharing a protracted embrace with Harrison instantly following their scrap, the two-time titleholder is now alleging that she was coping with “a number of accidents” heading into the combat that severely impacted the standard of her camp.
“I used to be plagued with a number of accidents heading into that combat. It wasn’t a very good camp for me in that sense, as a result of I knew that I used to be going into the combat with a fairly extreme handicap,” Peña mentioned throughout an look on The Ariel Helwani Present.
“It crossed my thoughts [to withdraw] however it wasn’t unhealthy sufficient to the purpose the place I must not combat, as a result of I knew I used to be going to have the ability to push by way of. Nevertheless it’s a humorous factor that my coaches didn’t clarify the severity of the scenario to me, in any other case I might’ve thought extra closely on not competing. I don’t remorse competing, I put in an excessive amount of time and I’ve taken away an excessive amount of time from different individuals, my daughter, my coaches, and their households. So I don’t remorse competing, I simply want I might’ve competed beneath higher circumstances.”
Julianna Pena reveals the small print of her pre-fight accidents
Although she was initially obscure on the small print, Pena opened up in regards to the accidents that she sustained whereas coaching for the two-time Olympic gold medalist.
“Second week of Could, I broke my thumb on my coaching associate, and it was swollen, appeared like somebody hit me within the hand with a hammer. It was actually tough to grip, and it nonetheless is basically tough,” Peña mentioned. “Then I took a very unhealthy fall within the Octagon and I tore my elbow, broke off a ton of bone chips in order that I wasn’t in a position to straighten my arm or bend my arm absolutely.
“It was so swollen and the MRI and X-Rays confirmed a tear and plenty of bone chips behind that, so going right into a combat 10 days out, it’s simply excruciating and it’s very painful, laborious to throw a punch and prolong.”
Pena additionally confirmed that the arm Harrison used to submit her within the second spherical was the identical one she compromised while coaching. Consequently, that might put ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ on the shelf for the foreseeable future, although no timeline for her return was provided or alluded to.
