Julianna Peña’s proposal for a female version of the BMF belt failed to pique the interest of Ultimate Fighting Championship officials.
Peña is rumored to be challenging Raquel Pennington for the women’s bantamweight title at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 5. Like many other fighters, Peña wanted to fight at UFC 306 at the Sphere, but was told her opponent wouldn’t be ready in September. Peña is now focused on becoming a two-time mom champion and sees it as the next best thing for her.
“I loved the idea of fighting in Las Vegas again. Of course, fighting at the Sphere would have been historic,” Peña told MMAjunkie.com. “But since that’s no longer an option, the next best thing is to win the title and become champion for a second time. And then having a baby and winning the belt, being a great mom, I think that’s enough.”
Peña claimed the status of the first-ever mom champion after her historic upset victory over Amanda Nunes at UFC 269 in December 2021. Prior to Peña, Cristiane Justino and Amanda Nunes were mothers and champions, while “Cyborg” adopted her teenage niece and Nunes’ partner, Nina Nunes, gave birth to a child.
Pena also proposed the BFM belt, a female version of the BMF belt.
[Baddest F—ing Mother] While Peña was giving up on her title shot, she did announce that she would be fighting Pennington for the title. Peña proposed that only mothers, regardless of whether they have given birth to children, could compete for the BFM title. However, Peña revealed that this idea was rejected by UFC as “corny” and therefore unlikely to ever happen. “The Venezuelan Womanizer” had now given up on her hopes of winning the unofficial women’s title.
“When we were making the BMF belt, I said I wanted a BFM belt,” she said. “So instead of ‘Worst Mother,’ I wanted it to be ‘Worst Shit Mother.’ So only mothers can compete for the belt. It doesn’t matter if they’ve had a baby or not. I thought it would have been cool to have a ‘Worst Shit Mother’ belt for mothers to compete for the belt, especially since we do the hardest thing as women, giving birth and giving life. They didn’t like my idea, they thought it was corny.
“But I don’t think they’ll be able to do that. [BMF] I have argued that women should also be given entitlements. [they told me] “They were like, ‘No, no, no girls.’ So I was like, ‘OK, let’s change it, let’s make a belt just for moms.’ And they were like, ‘No, no, no, that’s corny.’ So at this point I’ve kind of given up on the idea of ever being eligible to compete for the ‘Worst Mom’ belt or the ‘Worst Mother’ belt.”
Peña has not competed since losing a one-sided decision in a rematch with Nunes at UFC 277 in July 2022. A trilogy showdown was scheduled for last year’s UFC 289, but Peña withdrew due to injury and was replaced at short notice by Irene Aldana. “The Lion” retired after her one-sided unanimous decision win over Aldana. Peña still hopes to lure Nunes out of retirement with a title shot.
