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, 34, explained her reasoning for believing Harrison wasn’t clean came from a recent incident at International Fight Week 2024. According to Pena, the promotion provided athletes with a social media seminar that was followed by an anti-doping seminar that Harrison was absent from.
“I just already have the mindset that people are cheating. Especially from ATT, 100 percent at ATT,” Pena said.
“When Dan Lambert flew me out there after I won The Ultimate Fighter, they literally told me that all the girls are in the bathroom shooting each other in the ass with the steroids,” she concluded.
As a two-time Olympic gold medalist in Judo, Harrison wasted no time reminding “The Venezuelan Vixen” that she’s no stranger to competitive drug testing at the highest level.
“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.”
