Julianna Pena rips “mentally weak” Ronda Rousey

Top ranked UFC women’s bantamweight Julianna Pena has continued to make waves in interviews as she has continued her verbal onslaught of former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey leading up to, and in the wake, of Rousey’s return to the Octagon at UFC 207.

Prior to Rousey’s return at UFC 207, Pena called out Ronda Rousey in numerous interviews in hopes of securing a fight with the former champ when she returned to the Octagon given their beef when Pena was competing on The Ultimate Fighter. After Rousey stepped into the cage with Amanda Nunes and was TKOd in just 48 seconds, Pena continued her verbal onslaught of the former champ despite the fact that she is currently booked to fight Valentina Shevchenko at ‘UFC Fight Night: Denver’ later this month.

She most recently spoke to Submission Radio to discuss Rousey’s return, and why she believes the former champ has been dodging her:

“Ronda Rousey is mentally weak and she was literally handpicking her fights from the very beginning, and in my opinion she’s the worst girl on the roster,” Pena told Submission Radio in a new interview. “If you take a year off from the sport and you don’t train and stuff like that, the sport is going to evolve, and it’s going to continue without you. And if you don’t take any warm-up fight or any sort of tune-up fight, if you will, then you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”

“That girl’s been dodging me from day one, and she knows it,” Pena continued. “And that’s all I have to say. I think it’s very disappointing if she does retire, because yeah, I wasn’t the one that was able to dethrone her. But I think she knows at the end of the day that I am a nightmare matchup for her. I’m a nightmare matchup for any of these girls in this division, and she did not want to get locked in the cage with me, and it’s as simple as that.”

So far there has been no word yet as to when, or if, Rousey will be returning to the Octagon. Following her loss to Nunes at UFC 207, Rousey revealed that she would be taking some time to process the loss before making a decision on her future.