Julianna Pena has concerns about Kayla Harrison’s professional cleanliness.
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) Bantamweight division has been relatively stagnant since the reigning all-time great champion, Amanda Nunes, retired in June 2023. Six months later, the division saw a new champion crowned when Raquel Pennington won her vacant title tilt against Mayra Bueno Silva via unanimous decision at UFC 297 in January 2024.
The former champion, Pena, has maintained that she’s still in the title picture despite having been sidelined since her title loss (watch highlights) to Nunes in July 2022. After Pennington’s victory, the aforementioned Harrison burst onto the scene in UFC with a big win at UFC 300 and now could be next for Pennington. However, Pena hopes she’s competing clean.
“Stay off the needle, bro,” Pena said on The MMA Hour. “Maybe not now [is she on steroids] but definitely in the past. Absolutely. There’s no question.”
Pena, aged 34, justified her belief that Harrison was not clean by referring to a recent incident during International Fight Week 2024. Pena explained that the promotion organized a social media seminar for the athletes, followed by an anti-doping seminar, but Harrison was notably absent from the latter.
Pena expressed his perspective that he firmly believes people, particularly those associated with ATT, are cheating. He already holds this mindset.
She concluded by saying that when Dan Lambert flew her out there after she won The Ultimate Fighter, they explicitly informed her that all the girls were in the bathroom injecting steroids into each other’s buttocks.
Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in Judo, promptly reminded “The Venezuelan Vixen” about her familiarity with rigorous drug testing in elite competition.
“I have been tested by USADA since I was 12 years old,” Harrison quote tweeted. “You will find every excuse in the world not to fight me. and the only shot in the ass people need around u is anti-nausea medication.”
