UFC 316, set for June 7, 2025, at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey will feature a highly anticipated women’s bantamweight fight between champion Julianna Pena and challenger Kayla Harrison. Pena, who reclaimed the belt from Raquel Pennington at UFC 307 in October 2024, will take on Harrison, a two-time Olympic judo gold medalist who joined the UFC in 2024. Their matchup has been marked with a lot of trash talk, personal accusations, and public feud which has drawn significant amount of attention from UFC fans and media. Both the fighters have traded a lot of hurtful words at each other, and it is clear that the two have no intentions of becoming buddies any time soon.
The bad blood between Pena and Harrison has only escalated as UFC 316 approaches, with Pena calling her opponent a “one-dimensional” fighter and Harrison labelling Pena “delusional” for underestimating her. Pena has also accused Harrison of skipping the line and ducking Cris Cyborg at PFL, adding further tensions between the two. The heated rivalry began when Harrison joined the UFC in 2024, and after just two UFC fights, Harrison will now be contending for a title, which Pena does not agree with. Both the fighters have stoked the flame, with Pena accusing Harrison of steroid use and Harrison denying the claim, stating that she has a clean record.
Whether it’s for the promotion of the fight or an actual bad blood between the two, it has gotten the fans riled up and they are ready to witness the exciting matchup between the two on June 7th.
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In a recent interview, Julianna Pena made a pointed remark about Kayla Harrison, hoping she “cycles off at the right time,” before their UFC 316 fight. Pena’s comments referred to Harrison’s from 155 pounds to 135 pounds, suggesting that she might be using performance enhancement drugs to manage the drastic drop in weight. While the weight cut has not been an easy go for Harrison, in the past she’s talked about the difficulties of fighting in the 135 weight class. She’s claimed that she’s naturally a 165 pounder and at 172 pounds when she was competing in Judo. 135 pounds is a huge weight cut which could be affecting Harrison, but she has no other choice but to do so as UFC only offers upto 135 pounds for now, the highest.
Pena stated, “I hope she cycles off at the right time to make this weight,” implying that Harrison’s shredded look and physical transformation was suspicious. However, Harrison has never failed her drug test so far, and her head coach Mike Brown responded to Pena’s accusation by saying that she’s a freak of nature when it comes to her physical stature, but has not hoped into any kind of performance enhancers her entire life.
This latest comment is another shot that Pena has taken at Harrison, and this has only added even more fuel to the huge fire that has been created between the two.
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