Pena Teammate Sam Sicilia Sticks Up For Team: “She wasn’t assaulted”

News surfaced this week that former Ultimate Fighter contestant Julianna Pena suffered a horrific injury during training that resulted in the WMMA star tearing her ACL, MCL, LCL, meniscus, and hamstring.

Pena spoke on the phone with Dana White shortly after the injury and explained to the UFC President a terrible incident bordering on an assault charge which White described as The most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Pena is expected to be out for up to 2 years. Today her teammate, another TUF veteran, Sam Sicilia sounded off on Pena’s injury to Bleacher Report saying:

“No, she wasn’t assaulted, I guess she was at the gym, just lifting, and she went from there to go grapple. I don’t know if she didn’t warm up or what her deal was, but the guy she goes with, he’s one of those little 35 pounders, and I guess they were just training, and he had her up against the cage and then jumped on her back to get his hooks in. I think she went for a switch or something, and it was just bad. He’s a little power pellet, you know? So, he’s a little buff guy. I wasn’t there, but I’ve heard it from everybody—what happened. It definitely wasn’t assault or anything like that.”

That story conflicts heavily with the one Pena told White, who recounted the story to media members saying:

“It’s the worst injury I’ve ever heard of, ever, in this sport, and you hear about those types of injuries in football. Apparently, when she came into the gym — and again, she was hysterical when I talked to her, crying — she was training in her gym and one of her training partners, a guy, was saying to her, ‘oh, you’re wearing your Ultimate Fighter shirt, we’re real scared.’ He says that and was talking smack to her and then basically attacked her.

“He jumped on her back, started cranking her neck, and the way she fell her knee blew out. The most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard in my life. A year-and-a-half to two years she’ll be out, and I told her to leave that disgusting gym and go somewhere else with new coaches, new training partners, whatever. And that’s all I know.”

White went on to comment about the conflicting stories saying:

“That’s so far from the story she told me right after it happened when she was hysterically crying,” said White. “Completely opposite. … Somewhere in the middle lies the truth. You know what I mean?”