Julianna Peña has managed to avoid scoring controversies during her own UFC career, but the 32-year-old can’t help but weigh in when she sees the issue affect her division.
The UFC’s bantamweight queen was recently asked for her opinion on the result of a bantamweight fight between Holly Holm and Ketlen Vieira, as well as her thoughts on the current open scoring debate.
“So, I unfortunately didn’t watch that fight and I still haven’t watched it,” Peña told MMA Mania. “I kind of just relied on my coaches to tell me who they thought truly won. And I will say I don’t know if I’m a fan of open scoring yet, or I don’t know if it’s like actually amazing. I just think it’s gotta be some added pressure when you see that you lost the round and it’s kinda gotta light a fire under your butt, you know? And make you get going, so maybe the fights will be more exciting. I don’t know if that’s the whole reason behind it.”
“The Venezuelan Vixen” didn’t need to worry about the judges when she submitted Amanda Nunes to claim the women’s bantamweight belt at UFC 269, but Peña is sympathetic regarding the amount of responsibility that’s placed on anyone charged with scoring a fight.
“To be quite honest, the judges can’t seem to get it right anyhow regardless whether it’s open scoring or not open scoring. It’s a hard job, I totally sympathize with them on that because you know it is a difficult – it’s almost like you’re playing god in there and you have control of other people’s lives. So it’s a really big ask for them to get it right every time.”
Peña is set to headline UFC 277 in July against Amanda Nunes. That fight will be an immediate rematch of their previous bout and serve as Peña’s first defense of the women’s bantamweight title.
What do you think of Peña’s comments about recent scoring controversies and the difficulty of being a judge?