As the cage door closed, the highly regarded Bantamweight Shayna Baszler gave an icy stare across the ring to her opponent. Being backed by UFC Champion Ronda Rousey, Baszler seemed to have all the hype on her side. After an opening round saw back and forth action between the two combatants, Baszler came off her stool for the second round not realizing what was about to happen. An aggressive attack from her opponent saw Baszler finished in the second round. While this narrative describes Shayna Baszler’s recent loss to Bethe Correia at UFC 177 quite well, it’s not the fight I am referring to. It was only a year ago that Baszler suffered a very similar defeat to Pacific Northwest standout and eventual Ultimate Fighter winner Julianna “The Venezuelan Vixen” Peña. At the time of her fight with Baszler, Peña was a relatively unknown fighter from Spokane, Washington who was highly regarded by her coaches on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). Baszler was thought to be the odds on favorite to win that season of TUF, and her coach, Ronda Rousey, wanted to make an example out of Peña. As it turned out, it was Peña who would be setting an example, as she would go on to win TUF in dominant fashion becoming the first ever female winner in the show’s history.
Now, a year later, we have yet to see Peña with her hand raised inside the Octagon. After her win in the TUF finale, Peña was set to return to action at UFC 171 but she suffered a terrible knee injury that would take her out of the contest. The injury, suffered during a training session, left Peña in need of a full knee reconstruction. As quickly as the young fighter had made it to the UFC she was now out of the Bantamweight picture. The injury will take quite a while to heal; some reports have estimated that Peña is likely to miss all of 2014 and most of 2015. It is unfortunate that while Peña is forced to take a back seat, women’s MMA in the UFC is thriving in her absence. Baszler’s recent loss at UFC 177 was a featured fight on the event’s main card and this is undoubtedly a spot that Peña could have easily been in if not for the unfortunate injury.
When Peña’s injury occurred it was immediately made into a controversy thanks in part to UFC president Dana White. When White found out about the injury he was quoted as saying Peña was “basically attacked by a male training partner” at her own gym and White begged Peña to leave Spokane’s Sik Jitsu Fighting Systems. Peña’s coaches and teammates spent months dealing with the fallout from White’s comments. Even though the time after the injury was trying, Peña and her team at Sik Jitsu pulled together and soon enough the controversy would fade away and the outward support for Peña would grow. Peña’s peers are certain that she would be rising quickly up the ranks of the UFC women’s Bantamweight division had she not fallen victim to the injury. UFC veteran and TUF season 15 winner Michael Chiesa is a training partner of Peña’s and he pointed out that Peña was far more dominant in her win over Baszler than Correia was at UFC 177 saying, “This fight is a good reminder of how good [Julian Peña] is. If Bethe Correia is #10 [at Bantamweight] Julianna Peña should be in the top 5.” With her rehab going well Peña has said that she plans on having a big 2015. It remains to be seen if she will make it back to fight in the coming year but signs are pointing to yes and Peña has even posted some photos of herself taking part in some team practices.
With her injury in the rearview, “The Venezuelan Vixen” is ready to remind people just how dominant she can be. As the first ever all female season of The Ultimate Fighter is set to debut this week take a minute to remember that the first ever female Ultimate Fighter winner was already crowned; she fights out of the great Pacific Northwest and her name is Julianna Peña.
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