Kayla Harrison drops USADA bomb to silence Julianna Pena's drug allegations: "You will find every excuse"

Kayla Harrison recently took offense to Julianna Pena's comments against her. Pena accused Harrison of using performance-enhancing drugs.

Pena, who has been out of action since losing the bantamweight title to Amanda Nunes in July 2022, has insisted that she is still a contender for the belt despite Harrison's surge in popularity after she made a major impression on the promotion with a victory at UFC 300.

In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Pena expressed her thoughts on Harrison being potentially in line to challenge UFC women's bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington. In addition, she claimed that the 34-year-old had a troubled history of using drugs to obtain an advantage in the octagon.

''Great, strong [on the scale at UFC 300]. Stay off the needle, bro. Maybe not now, but definitely in the past, absolutely, there’s no question…at International Fight Week, we all came inside the rooms for the social media scrum. Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, all these guys to teach us everything we need to learn about…we broke for lunch, the next one after that was the anti-doping thing. Everyone was there…everyone showed for the second one minus Kayla. She’s the only one that didn’t go to the anti-doping one."

However, that didn't sit well with Harrison, who took to X and chastised Pena for her comments regarding substance usage. She wrote:

''I have been tested by USADA since I was 12 years old. You will find every excuse in the world not to fight me, and the only shot in the a*s people need around you is anti-nausea medication.''

Check out Kayla Harrison's response to Julianna Pena:

When questioned by a fan about why she was tested at age 12, Harrison responded:

''Because I was top 5 on the national roster for USA judo in the 48kg division at 12.''

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Kayla Harrison backs Julianna Pena to win in a potential title fight against Raquel Pennington

UFC bantamweight contender Kayla Harrison recently shared her thoughts on the potential bantamweight title fight between reigning champion Raquel Pennington and Julianna Pena at UFC 307, which is set to take place on Oct. 5, 2024, at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Harrison cited that she tends to favor grapplers. While predicting the Pennington vs. Pena clash, she had a similar opinion, saying:

“That’s a tough call. I tend to go with grapplers, so I think Pena pulls it out, but it’s anybody’s fight. I’d fight both of them on the same night."

Check out Kayla Harrison's comments below (4:19):