Kayla Harrison and a large portion of the MMA community seem to believe it’s an inevitability that she will defeat Julianna Pena to claim the UFC women’s bantamweight title. Not so fast. Peña (11-5 MMA, 8-3 UFC) recaptured the championship this month at UFC 307 with a split decision over Raquel Pennington in Salt Lake City. Earlier that night, two-time Olympic gold medalist Harrison (18-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) likely punched her ticket to a crack at gold with a victory over Ketlen Vieira. Although Peña largely ignored Harrison (18-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in the aftermath of the event and said she was “not impressed” by the performance while subsequently calling for Amanda Nunes to come out of retirement for a trilogy , all signs point to the showdown with Harrison being next. Peña’s coach, Mike Valle from VFS Academy in Chicago, said his athlete will be ready if it is indeed Harrison.
Go here to see the original: