Julianna Peña has another chance to undermine the potential UFC's plans.

Just a month away from UFC 316, the two-time UFC bantamweight champion worked hard to prepare for her next champion challenger, Kayla Harrison. But Penia still has time to go to her old rival, Amanda Nunes, who feels her presence at a press conference for the event kickoff in April. In the lawsuit, the first two division champion Narns appears to show that she will end her retirement after Penia vs. Harrison, presumably fighting the winner.

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Speaking on Tuesday's version of The Ariel Helwani Show, Peña revealed that she and the Lioness then shared a brief exchange after the press.

"She's happy in the future," Peña said. "I thought we would say something to talk, but the security guards were keeping us apart and making sure we couldn't do important work with each other.

"But she told me, 'It's all up to you. Everything is in your hands, everything will decide, everything will be up to you and what you do.' So she's basically saying, "I'm going to give you a trilogy, waiting for you to take care of your business on June 7." "This is exactly what I prepared (to do) and would do it."

She claims to thank Nunes after the exchange in old-fashioned Peña fashion.

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The rival's two battle series was 1-1, which started in December 2021, when Peña won one of the biggest disappointments in MMA history with Nunes after the second round to win the championship. Their sequel arrived about seven months later, and the competition was less competitive - Nunes later retired a defense after Pena ruled a unanimous decision to retake the bantamweight title before defeating Irene Aldana in June 2023.

Nunes vs. Aldana was initially considered a trilogy match between Nunes and Peña, but Peña ended up being unable to date due to a poor shoulder injury. Peña notoriously booed Nunes from the crowd during her retirement announcement and has since insisted that Nunes will always make a comeback.

"I've been looking forward to it," Peña said. "I literally said. I went to Vancouver and watched her put down her gloves and told everyone that she was a liar and kept booing her because I knew she wouldn't be fully retired.

"That's it - I hate the whole, 'I'm going to retire. I'm done.' If you're going to retire, I don't understand that fighters always retire and come back. I thought, 'No, she's not too young yet, she doesn't know her life is outside of the fight, she'll be bored, she'll want to come back to fight again." Now, the focus of the crowd is not on her, I saw her on Kayla.

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If Nunes won the first Peña fight, Harrison was a free agent at the time of the PFL and was publicly focused on Nunes' UFC debut, which might have worked in Fast-Forward.

But Penia undermined these plans. Now, four years later, Penia realizes once again that she is the obstacle to one of the biggest paper battles in women’s bantamweight history lately.

"(Nunes) sat there watching me do her dirty work, like her laziness," Peña said. "It's absolutely ridiculous. But anyway. She's going to do anything that needs to be done, and at the end of the day, Amanda is not my focus. Amanda is the furthest thing I'm now. I have a rhino about to fight me on June 7, and I need - I need - to - 1,010% ready for one thing I have. So that's one of my things."

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"I was told, 'Amanda doesn't want to have nothing to do with you. She definitely doesn't want to have anything to do with you. If she comes back, it's a fight with Kayla. But we'll see."

Just as there was never a brief joke between Penia and Nanis, so to say when Penia and Harrison continued to build toward the night of battle in Newark, New Jersey.

Despite Harrison's intermittent respect for Penia, she also admitted that it was difficult because, in her words, Penia was "sometimes stupid."

After hearing Harrison's emotions, Penia was very happy.

"I think it's funny because I think she was on the show and said I didn't have the skills, and then I saw another interview, like two weeks ago, saying she was preparing for Godzilla," said Penia. "So make up your mind - what skills are I or are you preparing for Godzilla? What is it? What am I? I'm 'mom','', got it right. When you watch the movie, you know, when you watch the movie Godzilla vs. King Kong's Godzilla wins.

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Harrison performed well in two UFC fights before the Peña showdown, sending former UFC champion Holly Holm and division Stalwart Ketlen Vieira.

Harrison's blistering battle is weight-focused, and her title is no different, with Peña marking the former PFL lightweight champion as a weight bully. Although Harrison hasn't reached the 135-pound title yet, Penia hasn't expected any issues on this scale.

"She's a professional and I have no doubt she'll lose weight," said Penia. "Does it suck? Is it taxed mentally, physically and emotionally? Absolutely, but when you try to be a weight bully and lose 50 pounds to make the weight level, that's what you get.

"So she spent a long night in the office, not only considering her first fight weighing 25 minutes at 135 pounds. It would be very hard and taxable, but at this point, like, how are you going to win? You might be lying in my situation in a round, but more and more?