Raquel Pennington fires back at Julianna Peña's criticism before UFC 307: 'I stay authentic'

SALT LAKE CITY – Raquel Pennington is comfortable with how she’s career herself as UFC women’s bantamweight champion, despite what Julianna Pena thinks.

Ahead of Saturday’s UFC 307 co-main event title fight at Delta Center (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+), the challenger and former titleholder Peña put Pennington on blast during media day.

Peña (10-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC) said Pennington (16-8 MMA, 13-5 UFC) “has not been a good representation of the women’s bantamweight division,” and thinks she has been doing a disservice with her position. Pennington does not agree with that assessment.

“We all know that Julianna has a master’s degree in ‘Yapology,'” Pennington told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday’s UFC 307 media day. “All she does is talk sh*t. She keeps herself relevant that way. To sit here and say I turned down ‘Embedded.’ How does she know anything about what I’m doing? It’s interesting. But she just yaps and she talks. But at the end of the day I’ve always been me. I stay authentic to who I am. I don’t need to go out there and do all the extra sh*t talking and whatnot.

“This (belt) is 14 years of hard work. I got here just staying in my lane, and you want to call me a terrible representation? I didn’t see her doing any better. She had the biggest upset and then she turned around and she got her ass handed to her for five rounds. So where’s the representation in that? But I can tell you for sure I am here to stay. And still.”

Pennington is used to Peña’s talk at this point. The pair were roommates on Season 18 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series. They initially attempted to bond, but shortly thereafter, both women realized their personalities didn’t mesh.

It’s been more than a decade of waiting to fight each other since then. Pennington admits Peña very much rubs her the wrong way, but she intends to channel that into a dominant performance to achieve her first title defense.

“It’s a fight that I’ve wanted for a very long time, but it’s taken 11 years to get here,” Pennington said. “Needless to say I’m super excited for this one. The animosity is she’s definitely someone who gets under my skin. Absolutely. I didn’t know Julianna going into the (TUF) house, and then I just quickly learned her personality. So it’s just been years where it’s like, ‘Hey, let’s do this.'”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.