Amanda Nunes believes the Kayla Harrison waiting for her at UFC 334 carries the same habits she used to see across the mat at American Top Team. On the Deep Waters podcast, the former two-division champion gave Harrison credit for her growth, then said the old flaws are still there.
“I spar Kayla before,” Nunes said. “We sparred, training. Honestly, when she first arrived in the gym a long time ago, I know she evolved a lot, but she still does the same mistakes since we sparred, you know? I studied her a lot.”
The two meet in the co-main event on Nov. 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York, and the history between them runs deep. When they shared a gym, Nunes held UFC titles at 135 and 145 pounds, and Harrison was still turning two Olympic judo gold medals into an MMA career. Nunes retired in 2023 and left the bantamweight belt vacant. Two years later that belt went to Harrison, who comes into this fight as the reigning bantamweight champion.
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Nunes made clear the friction at ATT went beyond technique. She said Harrison never struck her as an open training partner and still doesn’t seem to mix much with the women in the room.
“When she came to the gym, I didn’t feel like she was an open training partner,” Nunes said. “To this day, I don’t see she’s involved a lot with the girls. I think she gets along more with the guys than the girls.”
She allowed that the fight they both saw coming may have soured things from the first day. Nunes said they tried many times to connect, and she put it down to something neither of them could control: “I feel like the energy knew a lot more things than us.”
The bigger sore spot was the callouts. Nunes said Harrison kept using the microphone to talk about her while they trained under the same coach, and she thinks someone in the gym should have told Harrison to wait until Nunes stepped away before going after the belt.
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“Then when she started calling me out, every time she had opportunity, she grabbed the microphone and she always talk about me. That’s not good. We share the same mat,” Nunes said. She added, “I’m the champion in that gym, I brought the belt to that gym.”
Nunes also made it plain she has no problem with the fight. She fights for a living, she said. Her complaint is with the etiquette of chasing a teammate.
My take: Nunes has earned the right to sound confident, and the gym grievance makes sense to anyone who has spent time in a fight room, where you don’t campaign against the person you drill with on Tuesday. The scouting claim is weaker. The rounds Nunes remembers happened while Harrison was early in her move from judo, and Nunes admitted in the same breath that Harrison “evolved a lot.” Habits from a long time ago are exactly what a champion with good coaches spends years fixing. If Nunes walks into the Garden on Nov. 14 expecting the old Kayla, she had better have a second plan ready by Round 2.
