Exclusive: UFC champion Julianna Peña explains how she came back after having a baby

Peña opened up in an interview with DAZN News . As the undisputed champion, her priority remains to be a good person first and foremost, as she explained.

"To me, I don't focus too much on being champion or not being champion," Peña said. "I care more about being a good person and making sure that I'm doing right by my daughter and by the people around me. This life is fast. It's fleeting. It's like you're a grain of sand in the Sahara Desert and boom, then life is over.

"So for me, these are things I can't take to heaven with me. So I just focus on trying to be a good person, making sure that I'm doing right by the people that are around me in my life and the people that matter the most to me. And the belt is just a cherry on top of that."

As a mother, Peña explained that she took her time before returning to the top.

"I took my time. I had an emergency C-section," she said. "For me, to be able to recover the right way, I had to use Mercier Therapy, and I had to make sure that I gave my body grace and time to lose the weight, to get back in shape, to make sure that my abs healed back together and that the organs had the blood flow that they needed. There were a lot of factors that came into being able to get back into victory after having a baby."

Her child's birth motivated her above all in her quest to become the UFC bantamweight champion and gives her that strength on a daily basis.

"I believe that my baby gave me mom strength, and I was able to use her as a motivating factor to get my hand raised," Peña said. "I have that mom power. I'm the mom champ. I'm the first and only mom champ, meaning the first mom to give birth and win a championship - first and only. For me, that's an incredible accomplishment in my career."