Harrison is one of the most accomplished combat athletes all time, but she feels she needs one more win on her resume
Nov 13, 2026 at 8:01 am ET • 8 min read
NEW YORK -- As Kayla Harrison closes in on the biggest fight of her career on Saturday in arguably the most prestigious women's matchup in the sport's history, it's difficult for her not to reflect back upon the battle that led up to it.
Harrison (19-1), the 36-year-old UFC bantamweight champion, will take on former champion and teammate Amanda Nunes (23-5), the greatest female fighter of all time, in the co-main event of UFC 334 inside Madison Square Garden. The fight was originally scheduled for January at UFC 324 until Harrison withdrew just 11 days before.
After years of competing through herniated discs in her neck dating back to her days as a two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist in judo, Harrison suffered an injury in training so severe that it required immediate surgery. And her road to rehabilitation was so daunting and painful that she battled with the possibility that a full recovery might not be in the cards.
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"It was a wrench that I was not expecting in the plans, but God is good," Harrison told CBS Sports on Tuesday. "The recovery was a lot harder than I anticipated, so I'm very grateful to be here this week. I have been humbled and I'm hungry. I'm hungrier than I think I have been in a long time. I have no doubt that it all happened for a reason. Who I am as a result of that hurdle and obstacle in my life has propelled me to even greater heights as a person, as a mother and as a fighter. I'm excited to showcase it."
As Harrison put it, the physical trials she endured throughout her recovery left her in a position to really question how badly she wanted to come back for what might prove to be the final bout of her eight-year pro MMA career. Harrison hasn't yet ruled either way, but has maintained that the end is near, and that a retirement after Saturday for her, win or lose, remains a possibility.
For as much as Nunes, the only female two-division champion in UFC history who went on to defend both titles simultaneously, will need to shake off three years of cage rust following her 2023 retirement due to physical burnout, Harrison will be returning to the Octagon for the first time in 17 months since submitting Julianna Pena in June 2025 at UFC 316 to win the 135-pound title.
A native of Middletown, Ohio, who now lives and trains in South Florida, Harrison said that the prospect of finally facing off against Nunes is the only reason she endured the recovery from neck surgery to put on the gloves one more time. Had her injury postponed an upcoming fight against anyone else, she would've walked away for good.
The reason is simple. From the first time she set foot inside an MMA gym in late 2016, Harrison maintained she was only entering the sport to become the best to ever do it. By the time she made her pro debut in 2018 as a teammate of Nunes at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, "The Lioness" was months away from knocking out Cris Cyborg in the biggest fight in women's MMA history and cementing her status as the GOAT.
So, should Harrison defeat Nunes, the GOAT, on Saturday in a long-awaited matchup that has been talked about for so many years (and led to Nunes leaving ATT in early 2022), a victory would make Harrison what?
"The GOAT," Harrison said. "I mean, I think so."
Not every historian will completely agree. For as unique as her career has been, whether it was winning a pair of 155-pound tournaments (and $1 million prizes) with the PFL or the three wins she has recorded as a bantamweight since making her UFC debut in 2024, Harrison doesn't have anywhere near the number of legendary names on her resume akin to Nunes.
What Harrison has been, however, is completely dominant, winning 19 of her 20 pro fights, with the only defeat – a five-round unanimous decision to Larissa Pacheco in the finals of the 2022 PFL lightweight tournament – coming on an off night to an opponent she had soundly defeated twice in the previous three years.
"I have come to peace with my career," Harrison said. "It's something that I really had to wrestle with when I was recovering from the injury, not knowing if this fight was ever going to happen. I'm at peace with my career and happy with everything. Six-year-old me could never have dreamed of this life that I live. I am eternally grateful and this is the fight that I have wanted since I started MMA.
"A lot of things had to go right in order for this to happen, and some things did go wrong and it's still happening. I'm grateful to Amanda and I just feel really blessed. When you look at my life, sometimes I can't believe it. I really can't. It has been full of a lot of lows but so many more highs. And to be the GOAT, that was the goal from Day 1."
Harrison's personal story has long been one about perseverance. Abused by her judo coach as a youth, she went on to raise awareness as an advocate for child sexual abuse. She also became a single mother after adopting her niece and nephew and serves as their homeschool teacher.
Harrison's life of sacrifice extends to her unique fighting legacy when you factor in the seemingly insurmountable weight cut she was forced to make to realize her UFC dreams.
After competing in judo on the Olympic level at 172 pounds, Harrison initially cut down to 155 pounds to compete as a lightweight with PFL. But the UFC folded its 145-pound featherweight division following Nunes' retirement, which meant Harrison needed to cut an additional 20 pounds to make the bantamweight.
The fact that Harrison successfully did so even once shows how badly becoming a UFC champion has been part of her professional dreams. On Friday, she will attempt to make 135 pounds for the fourth time in a grueling process that demands every ounce of her discipline and commitment.
"I don't know if you can ever master cutting weight," Harrison said. "I don't know if that's ever a thing. But I do have a remarkable team behind me. This has been the 'least stressful' weight cut so far, but it is what it is."
Both Harrison and Nunes don't have a bad word to say about each other entering Saturday, as both appear to have decided that any lingering negativity that may or may not have fueled Nunes' ATT exit some five years into their tenure as teammates isn't worth rehashing. Many of their former coaches and teammates, however, tell a different story.
"We only sparred one time. It was before I had [officially] moved to American Top Team and I hadn't had a fight yet," Harrison said. "I had been training for a couple months, and I was trying out different gyms. My second day [at ATT] was sparring day with Amanda."
So, what happened in the sparring match?
"No, no, that's a faux pas," Harrison said. "We don't talk about what happened in sparring. But, I mean, clearly I had never fought before. It's not like I walked in there and absolutely thrashed her."
Harrison was often asked, even before her pro debut, by media members whether she would ever want to fight Nunes. Each and every time, Harrison said yes.
"I think that was probably what rubbed Amanda the wrong way," Harrison said. "I wasn't bringing it up, but I would say, 'Of course I would want to fight her. She's the greatest of all time.' To me, that's a compliment. If [UFC bantamweight and teammate] Bea [Mesquita] does an interview and says she wants to fight me, I don't take that as a threat. I take that as a compliment. Of course, you should want to fight me."
Harrison remains steadfast that she never looked at their training relationship as anything but a chance to make each other better. Still, the two eventually stopped working together once Harrison began establishing herself as a dominant pro fighter, and most still believe that Harrison's presence had a lot to do with Nunes' eventual decision to start her own gym.
"You have to ask Amanda that. I'm not in her head," Harrison said. "We don't talk about it, and it's not like I'm texting her about it. I was very much a team player. I never felt threatened or that there was a scarcity of coaches. That's one of the reasons that I trained there, because of her. If you want to be the best, you have to train with the best. By the time I got to work with her, it was a great opportunity for me. I feel like we are both very respectful, and it never got nasty.
"I have nothing bad to say about Amanda, but I'm just a loyal person. I started my career at ATT and I'm going to end my career at ATT. The same four guys are going to be in my corner on Saturday night, as they were on my first fight and I'm happy with that."
Quoting her longtime judo coach, Jimmy "Big Jim" Pedro Sr., Harrison believes Saturday's fight is a battle between a racehorse and a workhorse or, in fight terms, a classic matchup between a powerful striker and a grinding wrestler.
"I think we are so different as fighters, even in our training method," Harrison said. "She is wicked talented, very gifted. She's a thoroughbred and I'm a workhorse. She has amazing knockouts and great highlights and I'm more of a gritty, grind-it-out type fighter. So, it's kind of a classic matchup in that sense but it ends with my hand raised."
