Michael Chiesa Clarifies on Julianna Pena’s Injury

When Julianna Pena’s injury first surfaced the master of hyperbole himself, Dana White, was the first to report about it and said that he was disgusted with how it went down. So we had multiple stories floating around, one from Dana White that Julianna Pena was wearing her TUF gear and that it was a “hate crime” against TUF(!?) and the other from those in the gym was that they were just training and it just happened. Michael Chiesa, who trains at the same gym, gave his input into what’s going on with Julianna Pena. [source]

Pena was never “attacked” by some guy. She was training with a 135er that she trains with on a regular basis. He wasn’t talking s— to her for wearing a TUF shirt, and if he was, it was light-hearted gym humor. They were rolling and he went for a move that he’s hit on her a thousand times before and it just happened.

Nobody is to blame, it was a training accident. Just like Dominick Cruz. Everyone knows how hard she is to train with cause she’s so damn tough. She only has one female partner that can somewhat challenge her. Even on the show, she was training with guys on her team and, correct me if I’m wrong, they made a point to say how tough she is. She’s Cyborg-esque, I guess you could say, minus the PEDs.

Were a very close knit team here in Spokane, she was training with someone that she’s gone all the way to Canada to corner. She’s held this guy’s child, they are very close. This guy wasn’t some attacker or whatever the hell she said. This whole thing is tearing our team apart.