Julianna Pena not happy with Ronda Rousey potentially being given title shot upon return

It has now been almost exactly a year since former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was in the Octagon. In her last outing, Rousey was bloodied and battered by striking ace Holly Holm, who ultimately knocked Rousey out cold in the 2nd round to win the UFC women’s bantamweight championship.

Following the loss, Rousey took an indefinite hiatus from the Octagon to film several movies in Hollywood before making her return, which has continuously been postponed.

Now, with Rousey’s coach stating that the former champ could be back in the Octagon by the end of the year, and reports surfacing that Rousey has been offered a fight at UFC 207 against women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, it looks as though Rousey’s hiatus might be over.

However the way #5 ranked women’s bantamweight Julianna Pena sees it, Rousey shouldn’t immediately be getting an immediate fight for the title.

She spoke to MMAFighting:

“Yeah, I think it’s baloney. When Dana White announced that women were going to be fighting in the UFC around that same time it was announced that women were going to fight in The Ultimate Fighter, so I’ve been around from the very beginning.

“I’ve been around fighting these girls, and grinding, and taking this path of knowing who I’m going to fight, fighting in the ultimate fighter. And fighting everyone that they put in front of me, you know, inside the UFC octagon. So I’m the only girl that’s consistently winning, and if this was a tournament like The Ultimate Fighter, I don’t even know how some of these girls are still in this tournament. They’re still winning, and they have record of 1-1, and I’m still getting offers to fight them. I have not even been beat up in a fight before so many of these matchups don’t make sense to me.

“And coming from a not even a controversial loss, like you [Rousey] got knocked the f out. You got knocked out and then you get a title fight coming off of that. I’m still scratching my head, still piecing it together, and it just doesn’t make sense. If this was tournament-style format, I would be the only one standing, so to me, its kind of all nonsense. Like I said, I’m ready to go, so when that phone rings and says, ‘Hey, you’re fighting Ronda, you’re fighting Amanda,’ I’ll be like perfect.”

Rousey and Pena of course have a rivalry dating back to season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter, where Rousey stated that Pena wasn’t worthy to breathe the same air that she does.

If reports are true, and Rousey will return to the Octagon on December 30th to fight for the women’s bantamweight championship, what do you make of the booking?