Julianna Pena is the reigning champion inthe UFC women’s bantamweight division and she owns a piece of history as the first woman to ever win The Ultimate Fighter, but before all of that she actually competed against a man in a local BJJ tournament. It was all the way back in 2013, long before she ever reached the level of fame that she now has and when she was still pretty early in her MMA career. Pena was just 4-2 on the regional MMA circuit before she got her big break on Season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter, and not many people watching her grappling in a mixed gender division would have predicted just how far she would go.
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Julianna Pena vs Man In BJJ Tournament
It was only by pure chance that Pena ended up competing against a man, as no other women signed up for the tournament and she was left without any opponents. Opting to join the men’s blue belt division, on paper it should have been a much tougher test for Pena than her own bracket. When it came time to actually step on the mats, Pena put in a fantastic performance and was able to come away with the win. The footage of the match starts with Pena on the bottom in closed guard, and she’s working with an overhook on one arm.
Her opponent is able to break free and decides to drop back on a straight ankle-lock, but that gives Pena the space she needs to come up on top. She’s able to free her leg from there and her opponent transitions to closed guard himself to start his own offense from the bottom. He manages to hit a hip-bump sweep to put Pena back on bottom, but Pena recovers half-guard as he tries to settle into mount. Pena gets an underhook and wrestles up quickly from there, driving her opponent over and stepping straight past his legs to secure side control.
Pena has clearly got heavy shoulder-pressure from there, as she’s able to maintain control and step into mount shortly after. Her opponent tries to bridge to escape but Pena is able to stay heavy on top and shut it down, and it’s the next bridge that proves to be his undoing. He reaches up to get more power behind his bridge and as he does, Pena latches on to his arm and steps over his face to drop into a belly-down armbar. He tries to defend but Pena turns and rolls him onto his back, finishing the armbar from there and winning the match.
The full video of Julianna Pena competing against a man in a BJJ tournament was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Intergender Fight:
