Author Archives: Julianna Penya Simp

Julianna Pena demonstrates the calf kick defence vs. The Greatest of All Time

Jun 2, 2022
Julianna Penya Simp

Click after the jump to see the calf kick defence by one, Julianna “The Venezuelan-American” Pena no squiggly line. For safety reasons the clip is after the jump or “read more”! It’s a truly great clip of pure skill and artful tactics that even Sun Tzu would be proud of. Julianna Pena and The Greatest of All Time are currently in training camp for the rematch at the end of July, 2022. They filmed a season of The Ultimate Fighter aka TUF and it is currently airing with Men’s Heavyweights and Women’s Flyweights.

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A New Way to View Mixed Martial Arts – This is Fantasy MMA (UFC)

May 12, 2022
Julianna Penya Simp

If you have never played “fantasy sports” before or even seen a draft for team sports (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL)…

What separates “Fantasy Sports” and, at that, “Fantasy MMA” from “pick em”, draftkings and other commonly marketed “MMA Games” is that no one is allowed to pick the same winner. If you think Israel Adesanya will beat Jared Cannonier and you “pick Israel”, NO ONE ELSE CAN PICK ISRAEL. This means everyone else will be forced to pick Cannonier or a different fight/fighter.

IN ADDITION, YOU WILL “KEEP” THAT FIGHTER FOR 1 YEAR or whatever length of time is determined. (So someone like Izzy or Volk might fight 3 times and win all 3, which is obviously better than someone that only fights once and wins). Fantasy Sports are completely flexible. You create the rule set and system you want to “play” with based on the real-life outcomes.

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Exactly 50 UFC’s ago in Australia, Robert Whittaker took on Uriah “Primetime” Hall | UFC 193 Rewatch

Oct 4, 2019
Julianna Penya Simp

UFC 243 is upon us. Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya look to unify the Middleweight title in front of 50,000 fans in Australia. The biggest fight in Oceania history.

Exactly 50 UFC PPVs ago at UFC 193, Robert Whittaker was in the middle of the main card in an exciting striking oriented match up with Uriah Hall.

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14 Questions with Sabina Mazo: 6-0 Flyweight Prospect makes her UFC Debut vs. Maryna Moroz

Mar 28, 2019
Julianna Penya Simp

Sabina Mazo is a Colombian fighter with a 6-0 record making her UFC debut vs. Maryna Moroz on April 30th, 2019. She has already fought the full 25 minutes twice in her career and her opponents have a combined record of 29-10. That is an unusually strong strength of competition for the still developing regional women’s MMA scene.

She first made headlines with back to back headkick knockouts:https://youtu.be/Vor6987oBO0 and has since become LFA Champion.

Quick stats:

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[Grappling] All-female Quintet show April 7! Mcmann, Carmouche, King Reina, world champs Karppinen and Yuasa

Mar 25, 2019
Julianna Penya Simp

photos of competitors

Date: APRIL 7 2019

10th Planet

  • Elvira Karppinen (World Champ grappling)
  • Liz Carmouche (UFC title challenger)
  • Lila Smadja-Cruz (10th planet brown belt)
  • Fabiana Jorge
  • Grace Gundrum

BJJ Kunoichi / TEAM YUASA

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Fighters with 5 or more Top 10 Ranked UFC Wins

Mar 21, 2019
Julianna Penya Simp

This is only counting UFC rankings from Feb 5, 2013 when they began. I’m not going to include rankings before this time to keep it simple. This is an imperfect list since many fighters having big wins before the rankings were introduced, top fighters outside the UFC (Mousasi, Rory, Bader etc) and of course some controversial fights that require context. But it’s still an interesting look at the last 6 years.

I looked at fighters that have a lot of hype behind them due to activity and/or win streaks like Khabib, Holloway, Cerrone and Ferguson as well as listed the guys that had 5+ Top 10 wins like Werdum and Cormier.

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Match of the Day: Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Jorge Linares (May 12, 2018)

May 14, 2018
Julianna Penya Simp

Lomachenko vs. Linares 

Date: Saturday, May 12
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Location: Madison Square Garden — New York City

In front of 10,429 in attendance, Lomachenko survived a knockdown in round 6 to win via TKO in round 10 after a perfectly placed liver shot to claim the WBA (Super) and The Ring lightweight titles. In doing so he became the fastest fighter ever to win titles in 3 different weight classes (only 12 professional fights) shattering the previous record of 20 fights, which was held by Jeff Fenech.

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Sakuraba and Josh Barnett’s submission grappling team “Survival Series” format airs on Fight Pass April 11

Apr 5, 2018
Julianna Penya Simp

This new promotion is called Quintet. The first event will be called “Quintet.1” with the tag line “Team Grappling Survival Match” and features a host of notable names all across the MMA and combat sports scene. It’s stylized title may remind you of defunct Japanese MMA promotion Dream stylized titles.  This event will be broadcast on UFC Fight Pass.

THE EVENT AIRS APRIL 11 530AM ET / 230AM PT  

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Project Spearhead, the newest “Fighter Association/Union” to pop up, shows a clear plan to better fighters

Mar 2, 2018
Julianna Penya Simp

So here’s a bit of the the backstory, at the 2017 UFC Athlete Retreat the UFC had brought out special guest speakers to give their own little “Ted Talks”. One of those guests was Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, and one of the UFC athletes to attend was Leslie Smith (currently 2 fight win streak since fighting Cris Cyborg, exploded ear, 5 FOTN bonuses – 4 in Invicta – 1 in UFC). And Leslie Smith asked him about Unions.

What They Are Fighting For whether or not they unionize:

“The UFC can choose to either pay into our needs and respect us as employees with a say in all decisions affecting us.”

or

“Treat us like the independent contractors that we are being called and lighten up with the USADA supervision, uniforms and restrictions.”

“We need to have either the autonomy of being independent contractors like the UFC claims we are or we need to get benefits and a seat at the table as employees since the UFC treats us like employees.” – http://www.projectspearhead.com/

All this can be found on their website neatly under the “Why Associations” tab.

Next, is the process, which is also concisely explained and outlined on the website for Smith’s fellow fighters.

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