Efter en längre tid av frånvaro och tystnad har ”The Venezuelan Vixen” nu valt att berätta om omständigheterna kring sin knäskada.
Tidigare i år blev det känt att Ultimate Fighter säsong 18-vinnaren Julianna ”The Venezuelan Vixen” Peña (5-2) dragit på sig en allvarlig knäskada på sitt gym, som vid de första rapporterna verkade ha orsakats av en aggressiv träningskamrat. Peñas coach Ricky Little gick sedan ut för att dementera de kontroversiella påståendena och menade att det var en vanlig skada som orsakats utan ond avsikt.
Efter flera månader av tystnad kring ärendet så ställde Peña upp för en intervju med Yahoo Sports, och berättade om händelserna som orsakade skadan. Hon berättar att hon dök upp försenad till gymmet och håller sig till vad hon tidigare sagt om en träningspartner som sparrades alldeles för hårt.
”What happened was, I wasn’t even wearing an Ultimate Fighter shirt…the kid told me he thought it was an Ultimate Fighter rash guard. But, here’s the thing, it’s a gray rash guard, okay? It had a little UFC emblem on it. I was wearing that, I was late. So, when I got there, he was like ‘hurry up, let’s go.’ So, I get on the mat, I hit the clock, and he says, ‘Oh, you’re wearing your Ultimate Fighter rash guard’, I was like, ’what’s that supposed to mean?’ ‘That you’re really tough, I’m really scared.’ I’m like, whatever, and we slapped hands, and a minute later, my knee was tore out.
”Normally, in the gym, when there’s tons of people we start on our knees, you know there’s not enough room. But, in this instance, it was just me and him on the mat. No one was there, and we slapped hands, and we started going, but right when we started going, it was like ‘Urghh!’ fighting for your life, just cock strong, you know, both of us, and I was like, ‘you’re not taking me down, bro.’ And he wasn’t, so, he was trying to take me down as much as he could. So, I had my shoulder blades up against the back wall, and he’s trying to rear-naked choke me from the side of my body. It’s not even close, and it pissed me off, and I’m like, be technical. Don’t try to cock strong, you know? I was turning into him, and he was trying to drag me to the ground and rear-naked choke me at the same time, just trying to use all of his weight to try to drop me to the ground. So, when I turned into it, it was just the amount of force – it just blew.”
Skadan tvingade ”The Venezuelan Vixen” ur ett möte med Jessica Andrade på UFC 171. Peña har genomgått en lyckad knäoperation, men hennes rehabiliteringstid är oklar i dagsläget.
