Peña On TUF: “Real MMA Fights Are Three Rounds”

Even though The Ultimate Fighter helped launch her own UFC career, Julianna Peña thinks that the show could use a few changes.

The UFC women’s bantamweight champion coached against rival Amanda Nunes on the currently-airing 30th season of the UFC’s reality TV show. While Peña’s team has done quite well leading up to the semifinal matchups, there was some controversy on the show’s most recent episode.

Episode 8 featured the final quarterfinal bout between women’s flyweights Brogan Walker (Team Nunes) and Hannah Guy (Team Peña). While Walker won the first round comfortably, Team Peña’s Guy was dominant in the last few minutes of the second round and looked to have done enough to warrant a third round. The judges didn’t agree, and Walker earned the decision victory.

Speaking to The Schmo, Peña was asked about the episode and the judge’s decision end the fight after just two rounds.

“It’s crazy, I mean honestly these fights are nuts,” Peña answered. “You see what these judges are doing to these fighters? It’s horrible…These judges are ruining people’s lives. And I have one last thing to say on this for last week’s episode and this week’s episode. Real MMA fights are 3 rounds, not 2 rounds. And so it deserves to go to the third round in my opinion. But that’s just me.”

Peña could be seen discussing the decision with Dana White on the episode, and the UFC president seemingly agreed that there should have been a third round.

The Schmo suggested TUF could be used for the UFC to test open scoring, which “The Venezuelan Vixen” appeared open to before ultimately returning to her point about the exhibition format being an issue.

“I mean [open scoring] should absolutely be open for discussion. But the other thing that should be open for discussion is quit with these free exhibition matches on The Ultimate Fighter. They should be going three rounds no matter what. They’re free fights that they’re basically getting under these ‘exhibition’ rules. There’s no reason why all of these fights shouldn’t be going to three rounds.”

Peña and Nunes are serving as coaches on Season 30 of TUF as part of the leadup to their rematch for the women’s bantamweight title at UFC 277.

What do you think of Peña’s comments about TUF’s exhibition fights only being scheduled for two rounds?

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