New UFC women’s bantamweight champion Julianna Pena has quickly realized the spotlight at the mountain top can be quite bright, and that a titlist needs to be very careful with the comments they make in public.
During an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience in January, Pena (11-4) stunned the MMA world with her views on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The uber-popular podcast hosted by UFC broadcast voice Joe Rogan has been divisive for the perspectives offered on COVID and vaccinations. Many medical experts have called some of those guest opinions misinformation.
However, while many don’t agree with some of the more questionable views shared on the show, Pena said that she found previous episodes of the podcast to be “eye-opening.” And as an admitted conspiracy theorist, she felt the pandemic was just a massive “money grab.”
Julianna Pena calls COVID-19 a ‘money grab’
I listened to [your] podcast with the two doctors, back-to-back — Robert Malone and [Peter McCullough]. I mean, that was eye-opening for me. I’m a massive conspiracy theorist on this whole thing, and I have been since the very beginning. I’m like, ‘This is just a money grab. This is — they’re trying to kill us, and this is ridiculous,” Pena said. … “To me, I don’t put on a mask unless somebody asks me. And then I’m like, ‘That’s over. Come on.’”
Unsurprisingly, there were quite a few people who did not agree with Pena’s perspective. Even Rogan pushed back on the notion of “they’re trying to kill us.” Of course, the 32-year-old champion received blowback on her opinion, and during a recent media scrum to promote her coaching gig on season 30 of The Ultimate Fighter, Pena looked to clear the air and apologize for her comments on JRE.
Pena apologizes and explains the learning lessons of the UFC championship limelight
“I took a little heat on that as well. And what I mean to say, once again, my words were a little bit misconstrued. I am tired. I am exhausted. We are going on this pandemic [for] three years now. I just want things to go back to normal. I realize that they probably won’t, but I just — I didn’t mean to come across as insensitive,” she explaned. “Especially for the fact that I had COVID.
“Everybody that I know had COVID. I lost my aunt in Venezuela, I lost many people that were near and dear to me. It absolutely is real. I’m just angry and frustrated and exhausted over the whole situation because I’m just wanting things to go back to normal. So if I offended anybody by my comments on COVID, please, I would like to apologize,” she added. “That is not by any means what I meant to say. I just meant to say I am frustrated with the way that the world is right now.”
The backlash from her comments was a major wake-up call for “The Venezuelan Vixen.” Pena has been a UFC talent since 2013, however, the situation made her realize there is a major difference between being a fighter on the roster and being a champion. And that the reach a promotion titlist has is far more widespread. Meaning, counter-culture opinions as champion leads to being in hot water much faster.
“Now I feel like I can’t say how I feel about anything because they’re just gonna find a way to make a headline. So now I’m just like, ‘Keep it PG Julianna,” said Pena. … “When you’re in the limelight you’ve got to scale it back a little bit. And so, that’s just the world that we live in and you’ve got to be careful in what you say. and I think those are two hard lessons that I have learned since being a champion. Watch your mouth.”
Pena will coach opposite of former champion Amanda Nunes on the next season of TUF, which will debut on ESPN+ in May. The pair will then have a title fight rematch of their Dec. clash later this year.
