In retrospect, Julianna Pena admits, the first phone call she made after suffering a devastating knee injury early last year probably shouldn't have been to her boss.
Pena has not fought since November 2013, when she became the female winner of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series. Her 2014 was mostly defined, at least in the headlines, by a phone call she made to UFC president Dana White, shortly after blowing her knee out during grappling practice in Spokane, Wash.
Pena, 25, maintains she accurately described to White what happened in the gym that day, but details were lost in the hysteria of the moment.
"I think my first mistake was calling up Dana White and screaming blood-curdling screams while I was on my way to the hospital," Pena told ESPN.com. "That's where I made my first mistake."
Long story short, White publicly called the incident an "attack," which sparked a media swarm.
"The story got so exaggerated. Everybody was like, 'Her career is over,' " Pena said. "My gym got dragged under the bus. Everybody hated me. And on top of all that, I still had four torn ligaments in my knee."
Pena (5-2) returns to the UFC on Saturday to fight Milana Dudieva in a bantamweight bout at UFC Fight Night in Fairfax, Virginia.
To say "The Venezuelan Vixen" is eager to get her career back underway would be an understatement. Pena's short professional career has already seen peaks and valleys, and she's ready to see it start trending up again.
Just prior to her appearance on TUF, Pena says she was "really pissed off, to tell you the truth" with mixed martial arts in general.
She turned pro in 2009, partly to pay for courses at Spokane Community College. As she continued to impress in the cage, however, Pena decided to put college on hold and focus solely on MMA.
The decision did not immediately pay off. In February 2012, Pena was forced to pull out of a scheduled fight against Lauren Murphy when she was struck by a tree that had been hit by a drunk driver.
She took the first defeat of her career two months later against Sarah Moras, in a fight that was stopped when Pena dislocated her arm. She tried to book a fight with all-female promotion Invicta FC, but it never materialized. Her next fight didn't come until February 2013 -- on short notice. She lost.
"I was banging on Invicta's door for months," Pena said. "We had asked for a fight with them and they declined.
"I was really sitting there thinking, 'What the hell is going on?' Dana wasn't letting women in the UFC. I was thinking, 'I'm never going to make any real money fighting.' "
Less than one year later, Pena's worth to the UFC is hard to describe. She is a TUF winner with a knack for finishing fights and plenty of potential appeal in Latin America.
The UFC is invested enough in Pena that it paid for her to stay in an upscale hotel in Los Angeles for three weeks after her knee surgery, complete with full room service.
"First and foremost I have to thank Dana White and [UFC CEO] Lorenzo Fertitta. They got me the best doctor possible to reconstruct my knee," Pena said. "I know that I can be a hot commodity to this company. They can promote me in different ways. Not only am I a female, but I'm Latina."
Pena isn't naive. If things go well in 2015, all paths lead to the seemingly unbeatable champion Ronda Rousey.
When TUF filming concluded in Las Vegas in 2013, the UFC took the contestants and coaches (Rousey and Miesha Tate) out for a much-needed social event. Pena already knew she had the attention of Rousey, but says a conversation between them that night confirmed it. And as much as her focus is on Dudieva this weekend, Rousey remains in Pena's sights.
"I think about that fight every day," Pena said. "When I got off TUF, Dana White took us out on the town. We hadn't seen the light of day outside the house forever. When he took us out, Dana said, 'You and Ronda didn't get along too well in the house. Maybe you should have a chat.'
"We sat there and she said, 'You're going to give me a tougher fight than Miesha Tate could ever dream about, but when that time comes, I'm still going to kick your ass.'
"You don't say something like that to someone unless they've gotten your attention. I smiled, but I was really thinking, 'You're already 6 feet under and you don't know it yet.' "