Kayla Harrison is telling people the end is close. The UFC women’s bantamweight champion said on the Deep Waters podcast, sitting with Chris Weidman, Dustin Poirier and Jorge Masvidal, that her fighting career won’t run much longer, even as she prepares to defend her belt against a returning Amanda Nunes in the co-main event of UFC 334 on Saturday, Nov. 14, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Harrison, who just turned 36, framed it with a laugh. “Not long. 100-percent until the wheels fall off, but…four surgeries in four years, the wheels are a little wobbly boys,” she said.
When the subject came up again, her answer was the same. “Yeah, not much longer.” Then she pivoted to life outside the cage. Harrison said she’s a single mom raising two kids, homeschooling them while running a full training schedule, and that she hasn’t been on a date in roughly five years. She’d like to change that.
The résumé she’d be walking away from is enormous. Harrison won judo gold at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, the second one in Rio de Janeiro, after years of collecting medals on the international circuit. Two years after Rio she turned pro in MMA with the PFL, where she went 15-1 and won two tournament titles.
She crossed over to the UFC in 2024 and beat Holly Holm in her debut at UFC 300. A win over Ketlen Vieira came next, and then she beat Julianna Peña to take the 135-pound title.
The Nunes fight was supposed to happen already. The two were booked for UFC 324 earlier this year before Harrison withdrew to have neck surgery, which is one of the procedures behind that “four surgeries in four years” line. Nunes, the former bantamweight queen, is coming out of retirement for this one, so the November card features two women who have both thought seriously about life after fighting.
Quick take
I believe her, and the neck surgery is why. A fighter who has been grinding since childhood, first in judo and then in MMA, doesn’t joke about wobbly wheels unless she’s been counting the rehab weeks. That also makes the UFC 334 matchup more interesting from a technical standpoint, because Harrison’s whole game runs through her judo: closing distance, winning grips, putting people on the mat and keeping them there. All of that asks a lot of the neck and upper back. If the surgery held up and she had a clean camp, the champion’s grappling is the problem Nunes has to solve, and I lean Harrison. If there’s any hesitation in the clinch early, watch the first time Nunes digs for an underhook and see who wins the head position. With a win over the most decorated woman in the division’s history, Harrison’s list of reasons to keep going gets very short. The answer comes Nov. 14 at the Garden.
