UFC TITLE AT END OF ROAD
When Dana White strapped the bantamweight belt around Julianna Peña’s waist after one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, the promotion’s president immediately thought back to the first time he met her about eight years ago.
The way White remembers it, Peña found him at his sons’ jiu-jitsu tournament. She charged up to the executive, stuck out her hand and said: “I’m going to fight for you someday, and I’m going to be a world champion.’ ”
Peña’s journey from that cheeky introduction to this triumphant moment led her down a path she never could have anticipated, including detours for major reconstructive knee surgery in 2014 and the birth of her daughter in 2018. She pursued her dream relentlessly against those life obstacles and despite two recent losses, culminating in a showdown Saturday night with the most accomplished champion in women’s mixed martial arts history.
When Peña emerged from UFC 269 as the first new bantamweight champion since 2016, nobody in the sport appeared to be less shocked than the 10-to-1 underdog herself.
“I’m not surprised,” Peña said. “I know that I have a big, huge will and determination. You can do anything you want in this life. I’ve been through the wash. I have done it all. I’ve torn everything you could possibly think of. Ran over by cars, hit by dudes in the alleys. I’ve done it all. Nothing was going to stop me from getting this belt. This has been 13 years grinding, and it’s finally come to fruition. It’s my time.”
Charles Oliveira also defended his lightweight title for the first time with a thirdround stoppage victory over Dustin Poirier by standing rear naked choke in the main event.
Peña’s time as the UFC’s new 135-pound champ began with a career-defining victory over an opponent who hadn’t lost since 2014.
Although she took plenty of damage from Amanda Nunes’ punches and barely escaped the first round without losing by submission, Peña displayed shockingly effective striking that was too much for Nunes, the best striker in the women’s sport. Nunes got hurt and tired in the second round before failing to escape the rear naked choke that ended her reign.
Nunes had beaten up aldown most everyone she had faced for the past seven years, including famously merciless knockouts of Ronda Rousey and Cris “Cyborg” Justino. Peña took Nunes’ big shots and stayed upright — and Nunes didn’t have the energy or the fortitude to come up with another plan.
“It doesn’t matter how strong you are, how big you are, how hard you hit,” White said. “At the end of the day, in a five-round fight, it comes down to who’s in better shape.”
Nunes is still the UFC’s 145-pound featherweight champion, but White and Peña both said she can have a bantamweight rematch next if she wants it. Peña’s confidence will only grow, and even White wonders whether the 33-year-old Nunes’ best days are suddenly, shockingly done.
“She’s been on top forever,” White said. “She has a lot of money, and she has a baby now, a family. These things change you.”
After Peña’s upset, Oliveira (32-8, 1 no-contest) survived a rough fight with Poirier (28-7, 1 no-contest) to improve to 10-0 with nine stoppage victories since 2017.
Poirier battered the champ with punches in the first round and knocked him twice, but Oliveira took control on the ground in the second round with a series of vicious elbows. He finished the fight with 3:58 left in the third by attaching himself to Poirier’s back and forcing him to tap while standing up.
“We respect each other a lot,” Oliveira said through a translator. “But I was going to have my arm raised, and that’s what happened. I want to make history. I want to leave a legacy, and I plan to show people that I can.”
Oliveira and White both said the champ’s next defense is likely to be against Justin Gaethje, the entertaining brawler who held the interim title in 2020.
Poirier already had a spectacular 2021 with his two victories over Conor McGregor, erasing the vaunted former champion’s winning mystique and making two enormous paychecks for decisive stoppage wins.
“It ruins the dream outcome that I had planned, to forever be a world champion after tonight,” Poirier said.
“But the year isn’t ruined. An opportunity I had is ruined, and that’s all right. It is what it is. I’ll look in the mirror like a man.”