Kayla Harrison Expects Amanda Nunes Fight to Elevate Women’s MMA

Kayla Harrison’s championship victory might have been a best-case scenario for the UFC.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist was dominant in the UFC 316 main event, as she submitted Julianna Pena with a second-round kimura to capture the women’s bantamweight crown on Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. That sets up a high-profile showdown with former two-division champion Amanda Nunes, who entered the Octagon to square off against Harrison after the bout.

Nunes is going to be making her return in the near future after a retirement that has lasted two years.

"Listen, I'm going to give Amanda as much time to prepare, I want her to be the best her," Harrison said at the UFC 316 post-fight press conference. "I'm going to be the best me, and we're going to go in there and make absolute magic in the UFC women's division. We're going to break some records and make some history. We're both going to make a lot of money doing it, and we're going to bring women's MMA to a whole new level.”

Before coming to the UFC, Harrison was a champion in Professional Fighters League, where she competed at both 155 and 145 pounds. The biggest question regarding her transition to the UFC was her ability to make the bantamweight limit. Thus far, she’s been successful on three separate occasions — including making 135 on the nose for her championship date with Pena.

Harrison admits that it’s not getting any easier.

“I would have chopped off my leg to make it to this fight,” Harrison said of the weight cut. “There are moments in your life where you have a choice, right? You have a choice to say, ‘I quit,’ or you have a choice to dig in your heels and Thursday night was definitely one of those moments for me where I really wanted to be anywhere else on Earth than in that sauna.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it sucks ass. It’s not pretty, but it’s in those moments when you’re true character comes out and you’re forged and I’ve been forged in the fire, literally. [UFC CEO] Dana [White] and I were joking about it, I might be unbreakable. You can’t kill me, I’m kind of like a cockroach, you can’t get rid of me. And again, I give all of that to God. He’s made me a hell of a weapon.”

With that in mind, Harrison was asked about the possibility of her showdown against Nunes taking place at 145 pounds. The newly-crowned bantamweight queen is open to all possibilities — just as long as the fight happens.

““I just want to fight. I definitely want to fight Amanda. She’s the greatest of all time, I want to be the greatest of all time, I’ve wanted that for a long time now,” Harrison said. “It’s not personal, there’s no bad blood. I don’t care what weight we fight at. I walk around at a hundred and—I’m not even going to tell you guys what I walk around at. Never mind.”