UFC champion Julianna Pena planned to lock rival Amanda Nunes in a room with a bear whilst they filmed The Ultimate Fighter - but the prank was scrapped overs fears for Nunes' safety.
Pena looks to defend her women's bantamweight title against Nunes this Saturday at UFC 277 for the first time since winning it from 'The Lioness' last December. Pena defied the odds by handing Nunes her first loss in six years when they fought at UFC 269 and the defending champion is yet again an underdog heading into her title rematch against Nunes.
The pair began filming season 30 of The Ultimate Fighter together in February in the lead-up to their rematch in Texas this Saturday. Pena - who won season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter eight years ago - revealed Jackass star Johnny Knoxville was on board to help her lock Nunes in a room with a bear, only for the prank to be scuppered.
Who wins at UFC 277 - Julianna Pena or Amanda Nunes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below
"I will tell you that Johnny Knoxville was involved and that they had a bear," Pena said. "We were going to lock her in the room and when she walks in there, she was going to see this gigantic bear. We’d lock the door so she couldn't get out and then she would start freaking out.
“Johnny Knoxville was on board, Dana was on board and then they were like, ‘We have the fights on Saturday night, this bear has to get acclimated to this room for four nights. It has to eat, s***, sleep in this room. We need the room for the fights.’ So they ended up saying that we couldn’t have the bear, so we changed it to a tiger and midgets."
Pranks between coaches are a common theme on The Ultimate Fighter, with Brian Ortega planting snakes in UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski's locker room when they coached on last year's season. Pena admitted security thought her prank was a step too far, even when they tried to switch the bear to a tiger and "midgets".
"They were like 'ok let's see' but something happened when they were like 'we absolutely can't have this, you want to lock a tiger in a room with one of the best fighter's on the roster?' so the whole thing got squashed. If the Jackass boys aren't helping me there's no point in pranking. You can't do anything after that, it's either all or nothing," she added.
