'TUF 18' champ Julianna Pena says knee surgery successful, thanks UFC and fans

“The Ultimate Fighter 18? winner Julianna Pena today announced that a surgery to repair her badly damaged knee was a success.

“Surgery was a success! I was freaking out the whole time thinking I wasn’t going to wake up for provoking death so much, but I’m alive!” Pena, 24, wrote on her official Facebook page.

Pena (5-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC), who was injured while preparing for a March 15 bout at UFC 171 opposite Jessica Andrade (10-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC), thanked her team of doctors, which included Dr. Ronald S. Kvitne, the team physician for the Los Angeles Kings and Los Angeles Blades.

“(UFC President) Dana (White) put me in the best hands for surgery; they’re confident I will make a full recovery in due time,” Pena wrote. “I would to send out a huge thank you to Dana White and the UFC for making this successful surgery a possibility.

“And THANK YOU to everyone who has sent me prayers and well wishes. Your guys support is so meaningful and beautiful to me. No kidding it’s the reason why I keep moving forward [with] my fighting career.”

As of now, a timetable on Pena’s return to the cage is not available. Messages to her trainer and the UFC went unreturned.

With Pena on the sidelines, Andrade is now slated to face “TUF 18? veteran Raquel Pennington (4-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC) at UFC 171, which airs on pay-per-view from Dallas’ American Airlines Center.

Initially, it was reported that Pena may be out of action for two years as she recovered from tears of her ACL, MCL, LCL, meniscus and hamstring. The injury occurred at her longtime gym, Sik-Jitsu Fighting Systems in Spokane, Wash.

After White reported that Pena was attacked by a training partner, her longtime coach, Rick Little, released a statement to MMAjunkie that said the injury was the result of an accident. White later countered that “somewhere in the middle lies the truth.”

Pena has yet to comment on the sequence of events that led to the unfortunate incident. She was most recently seen in the cage at The Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale, where she earned a first-round TKO win over Jessica Rakoczy that cinched her win of the reality-show tournament. The triumph followed back-to-back setbacks on the regional circuit after four straight wins.

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