Kayla Harrison came close to never making the walk against Amanda Nunes. On Wednesday’s edition of “The Ariel Helwani Show” on Uncrowned, the UFC women’s bantamweight champion described a year of injury and recovery that pushed her toward retirement. She said she wasn’t sure she would ever fight again.
“I wasn’t very good for a very long time, and it was a struggle,” Harrison said.
The problem was her neck. Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo, said she has lived with five herniated discs for a long time. She tried everything short of surgery to manage them, including regular stem cell treatments, anti-inflammatories, arthritis medication, pain pills, nerve pain pills, muscle relaxers and heavy physical therapy. Then December arrived. Numbness ran down her arm, she lost feeling in three fingers, sharp lightning-bolt pains shot through her, and her right arm got weaker. An MRI in January showed the last two of those five discs were completely blocking a nerve.
According to Yahoo Sports, she also tried an epidural shot. It didn’t help. A UFC specialist in New York told her she risked permanent damage, and at one point she went five days barely sleeping because the pain kept jolting her awake. Surgery was the only real choice.
“Obviously, I was devastated,” she said. “I think there’s something to be said about being on the one-yard line and fumbling. That’s how it felt.”
Recovery was its own grind. Harrison wore a neck brace for eight weeks and was barred from lifting more than 20 pounds. Her rehab exercises amounted to looking up and looking down. “I wasn’t even crawling. I was standing completely still,” she said, adding that you go from sparring five rounds as “the baddest woman on the planet, to in a straight neck brace.” She credited her team for pushing her to put her health first.
The Fight That Brought Her Back
The Nunes fight was first set for Jan. 24 at UFC 324, the UFC’s launch event on Paramount. Harrison’s injury forced her out. The former American Top Team teammates are now rebooked for Nov. 14 at Madison Square Garden in the co-main event of UFC 334. Harrison is 36 and 19-1. She hasn’t fought since June 2025, when she submitted Julianna Peña with a second-round kimura to win the title. That makes this the longest layoff of her career.
Harrison said she probably wouldn’t have returned at all if Nunes hadn’t come out of retirement to make this fight. She also still has two herniated discs to fix once she stops competing. If those were already done, she said, she’d already be retired. Asked about what comes after Nunes, she left a small opening. “What if they offer me $10 million a fight?” she said. Then she closed it again: “But I don’t ever have to fight again. I’m good.”
Nunes carries her own question marks. Ben Fowlkes noted in his Yahoo mailbag that she hasn’t fought in over three years and is nearing her 40th birthday. He added that fighters he knows who had the same neck surgery said they felt better than they had in years.
My take: I believe her when she says she’s at peace. That should scare Nunes. A champion who has already made her money, sat in a neck brace and decided to come back anyway isn’t showing up for a paycheck. She’s showing up because Nunes is the only opponent who made the surgery feel worth it. Alex Pereira even argued this fight should headline UFC 334 over Ciryl Gane vs. Josh Hokit, and for once I’m with the guy who wants Herb Dean fired. Two legends who might both walk away after Nov. 14 deserve the last spot on the card. Let’s hope that mention of $10 million a fight reached someone in the TKO accounting department.
