UFC 269 cold open: Battle of ‘destiny’ in main event, Julianna Pena attempts to silence ‘roar of The Lioness’

The final two UFC title fights of 2021 are the focal point in the cold open for UFC 269 on Saturday in Las Vegas.

Narrated by Ron Perlman, the opening promo for the T-Mobile Arena event — and the UFC’s pay-per-view capper for the year — touts a battle for “destiny” in the main event for the lightweight championship between Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier, while Julianna Pena aims to silence the doubters and pull of one of the biggest upsets in UFC title fight history against Amanda Nunes in the co-main event.

Check out the early released cold open below ahead of Saturday’s card.

Poirier, the No. 1 ranked lightweight in the world in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings, will look to cap off his greatest competitive year by accomplishing one of his remaining goals in MMA: Becoming a world champion. To do so, he will have to get through the surging, and perhaps underappreciated champion in Oliveira, who enters the fight on a nine-fight winning streak.

Nunes, who is also holds featherweight gold and is the No. 1 women’s pound-for-pound athlete in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings, puts her bantamweight crown on the line for the first time in nearly two years against a vocal challenger in Pena, who has been calling for her opportunity for quite some time.