If things couldn’t get more personal for Mayra Bueno Silva regarding Julianna Peña, they just did, thanks to the former champion’s recent comments.
Earlier this week, Bueno Silva revealed she failed a drug test prior to her second-round submission win over Holly Holm in the main event of UFC Vegas 77 in July, citing her use of ADHD medication – not a performance-enhancing drug.
In response, Peña blasted Bueno Silva, calling her “CHEATara.” The ex-champ added Bueno Silva will be “back to being a curtain jerker of an APEX card” instead of fighting for a world title.
“I love Julianna, she is funny,” Bueno Silva told MMA Fighting about her response to Peña. “She is funny, but I promise you, I promise that I don’t go to finish [Peña], I don’t go to knock her out, I will smash Julianna for five rounds. She needs help, your coach will have to throw the towel in the octagon, because I will smash her for five rounds. I promise.”
With Amanda Nunes’ recently retirement following her UFC 289 title defense against Irene Aldana, the women’s 135-pound title is vacant. With a win over Holm and a four-fight winning streak, Bueno Silva put her name in the championship picture along with Peña and Raquel Pennington.
While it appears Peña and Pennington will eventually battle it out for the vacant title, Bueno Silva is hopeful she will be cleared by the Nevada Athletic Commission at Thursday’s meeting so that she can fight Peña instead.
“I’m waiting, and I don’t want this fight [between Peña and Pennington] to happen, because nobody wants to watch this fight,” Bueno Silva explained. “The best fight is me and Julianna, because nobody will do what I do to Julianna.”
When asked about who would win a potential fight between Peña and Pennington, Bueno Silva was quite confident Peña won’t be able to beat Pennington — or anyone else, for that matter. She believes trash talk can get you big fights, but it won’t help you win them.
“I don’t think Julianna will beat anybody,” Bueno Silva said. “Raquel [will win], of course. Everybody wants to fight Julianna. Every girl wants to fight Julianna. Is it because Julianna is good? No, because she’s easy money.
“I like [the trash talk], but it depends. What Julianna is doing 1692867612 is talking about serious things, she’s talking about ADHD, she don’t know what happens when people have this. She don’t know what’s difficult. This is hard, this is very hard. But that’s OK. I understand because she needs help because she doesn’t fight very well. If she doesn’t talk, what does she have? Nothing.
“I will smash her,” Bueno Silva continued. “She talked about the one thing that’s very hard for me. I’ve suffered a long time, all my life, and she’s talking about this thing that is very difficult for me, and a lot of other people in the world.”