UFC women’s bantamweight champion Julianna Peña laid out some hard criticisms of the women’s featherweight division during the UFC 277 Media Day.
Peña believes it’s a one-fighter division, and she has a valid point. If you go to the UFC Rankings page on the fight promotion’s website, there is only one fighter listed in the weight class, and it’s champion Amanda Nunes.
Nunes once held both the featherweight and bantamweight championships, but Peña snatched the bantamweight title from Nunes at UFC 269 in December, submitting the former two-division champion in the second round. The two are set to rematch in the UFC 277 main event on Saturday.
Peña was asked about moving up in weight to via for a second title if she defeats Nunes a second time, but that would put her in a third fight with Nunes.
“There’s nobody in the (featherweight) division. There’s really not. It’s a division of who? Amanda? Who else,” Peña said.
“All the girls that have fought at 145 just went up in weight so they could have a shot at the belt because they couldn’t get it done at 135. It’s a division of literally no one. To me, it’s primarily people that can’t make 135, or just don’t want to cut the weight. The real fights are at 135.”
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