Kayla Harrison can’t wait to finally share the octagon with Amanda Nunes at UFC 334, a scenario that was far from a guarantee just a few months ago.
The bantamweight greats have been on a collision course for years, having previously trained together while Nunes was dominating the UFC bantamweight and featherweight divisions and Harrison was making a successful transition from two-time Olympic judo champion to two-time PFL tournament champion. Harrison eventually made the jump to the UFC in 2024, but by then Nunes had retired.
Nunes announced a comeback in 2025 and the two were to fight at UFC 324, but neck surgery forced Harrison out of the event and they have since been rescheduled to fight for Harrison’s bantamweight belt at UFC 334 on Nov. 14 in New York.
As of this moment, Harrison is confident she will settle the score with the woman considered to be one of the GOATs of MMA, but her journey wasn’t without its doubts.
“I feel awesome,” Harrison said on the Deep Waters podcast. “To be honest, it was rough at the beginning. I think more just obviously physically, but mentally, it was such a big surgery and I went 10 years without having surgery. I had reconstructive knee surgery in between my two Olympics and then I went 10 years with no surgery, but in the last four years I’ve had four surgeries back to back to back to back and this one was the most serious.
“I kind of was just like, ‘Dude, am I ever going to be OK again?’ It got to the point where I was questioning if I was ever going to feel like myself again. But I’m back. I’m back.”
Initially, Harrison had hoped to get a disc replacement as opposed to fusion, based on what she’d heard about the procedure’s benefits for longevity and mobility. It was her intention to fight Nunes as soon as possible.
However, once Harrison was properly examined, it didn’t take long for a doctor to figure out that wouldn’t be happening as well as the best course of action for the UFC bantamweight champion.
“I had a two-level fusion,” Harrison said. “So I have five herniated discs. I wanted to do the disc replacement because I hear that’s much better and then when the doc went in, he was like, ‘No, you can’t.’”
“You have to remember, I was trying to make it to my fight. So this was two weeks before I’m supposed to fight Amanda. I can’t lift my arm, I’m getting lightning bolts. The last five days I think I slept maybe three hours because I would fall asleep and then the lightning bolts. It’s the worst pain ever. So finally, the UFC is like, ‘Go to New York.’ I flew to New York, the doctor looked at all the stuff, he was like, ‘Yeah, you need surgery now. When do you want to have it?’”
Harrison underwent surgery the next morning, still believing there was a chance she could make her date with Nunes. In addition to surgery, Harrison explained there was no stone she left unturned in her attempt to fix her neck ahead of schedule.
“I did everything to try to get to the fight,” Harrison said. “I was doing monthly stem cell injections, I was doing PT rigorously, then I started doing muscle relaxors, didn’t touch it. Then I was doing nerve pain pills, then they gave me heavy duty pain pills, but nothing touched it.”
When Harrison steps into the cage with Nunes, it will mark two of the most accomplished women in the history of combat sports going toe-to-toe with their legacies on the line. That’s how the marketing goes, anyway.
For Harrison, as excited as she is about the possibility of adding Nunes’ name to her elite résumé, there’s nothing that can happen on Nov. 14 that will discourage her.
“I’m already satisfied,” Harrison said. “It’s not about getting the fight. Of course, I want this fight, but I’m satisfied with my career. I had to come to terms with that when I had neck surgery, it sort of went back to pre-kids where it’s like, are you able to love yourself if you don’t reach all of your goals? Are you still worthy of your own love, Kayla? And I am. I’m good with everything I’ve done. If I never fight again, I’m still a child of God with inherent worth and value and I’m a mom and I’m a daughter and I’m a friend. I’m good, but this is for me. This is about me.
“I love fighting. I thought I loved judo and then I met MMA and I love it so much and I know our time is very short. You don’t get to do this forever and so I want to make the most of it and I had to fight like hell to get through this neck surgery and just mentally to get back to a place of ‘Oh yeah, I am that b*tch.’ This is for me. I don’t need money. We could do it at ATT, this is just for me. I want to go out there and see what I’m made of. Am I who I say I am?”