UFC 307 preview: Does Julianna Pena deserve a bantamweight title shot?

Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion at 26 months Julianna Pena returns to action this weekend (Sat. October 5, 2024) to take on old foe and current champion Rachel Pennington in the co-main event of UFC 307 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

There has been a lot of criticism surrounding Pena’s immediate title shot. So the question is: does she actually deserve one? The answer is… no.

Let me explain.

First and foremost, she was completely wiped out by the former double champion in her last fight Amanda Nunes in a non-competitive fight. Their rematch was an immediate repeat of their first fight, which saw Pena upset an exhausted Nunes for the title.

Yes, there have been several examples of fighters receiving title shots after losses; For example, Israel Adesanyaagainst whom a middleweight title was recently shot Dricus du Plessis after being dominated by Sean Strickland. The difference between Adesanya and Pena is that “Stylebender” is a two-time defending champion with several title defenses and is one of the biggest stars in the company.

Secondly, Pena currently has no wins over anyone on the UFC roster. Not one. Besides Nunes, her most recent victory is over the Worn Shop Sara McMann and before that she was put to sleep against kickboxing champion and former UFC title holder Germaine de Randamie (watch highlights).

Finally, there was a pretty clear option to fight for the women’s bantamweight title: Kayla Harrison. The 17-1 judoka demolished the former champion Holly Holm in her Octagon debut and is a former two-time Professional Fighters League (PFL) champion and Olympic gold medalist. Perhaps the promotion wanted to see if Harrison could make the bantamweight limit (again) without any problems, but there is no compelling reason why Pena was chosen over Harrison.

I really don’t see any reason why Pena deserves this title other than she talks a lot of trash, which ends up being…well, very cringe. There’s a somewhat interesting storyline between her and Pennington (they were in The Ultimate Fighter 18 together) and have hated each other ever since.

Nevertheless, UFC goes UFC, and we have a stupid bantamweight title fight this weekend that no one cares about because of the undeserved challenger.

MMAmania.com delivers LIVE round-by-round coverage of the entire UFC 307 fight card RIGHT HEREstarting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches at 6:00 PM ET, followed by the remaining undercard balance on ESPNN/ESPN+ at 8:00 PM ET, before the main card’s PPV start time at 10:00 PM ET ESPN+ PPV.

To watch the latest and greatest UFC 307: “Pereira vs. Rountree Jr.” news and comments, be sure to visit our extensive events archive here. Click here for the updated and final UFC 307 fight card and ESPN+ lineup.