Kayla Harrison had just made Amanda Nunes tap in the fourth round of the UFC 334 co-main event on Saturday night. Joe Rogan asked her what it meant to beat Nunes at Madison Square Garden. She skipped the callout and the victory lap and told New York City about the worst thing that ever happened to her.
“It feels surreal,” Harrison said, according to Essentially Sports. “I think sometimes I can’t believe my life, Joe.” She then told the crowd she was sexually abused at a young age and said that “statistically I’m not supposed to be here.” She described how neither the six-year-old version of herself nor the teenage one could have pictured this night. “If you told me at 16 years old that this would be my life. I wouldn’t have believed you,” she said, before closing with, “And I’m just really grateful; I’m humble, and it’s an honor and a privilege to stand before you, New York City. I love you. Thank you!”
This is a subject Harrison has talked about publicly for years. According to an LA Times article cited by Essentially Sports, she first spoke out around 2011, before her first judo gold, disclosing that her former judo coach molested her when she was very young. Her mother reported it to police, and the man received a 10-year sentence.
The fight
Nunes, back from a three-year layoff, won the opening round. She found her range early and stuffed Harrison’s first takedown attempt, and for about five minutes the comeback looked very real. Then Nunes made the decision that decided the night. From the second round on she chose to wrestle with a two-time Olympic judo champion, and Harrison happily took the gift, controlling her on the mat and landing heavy shots. Harrison had a tight choke at one point that Nunes survived. In the fourth, Nunes threw a kick, lost her balance and turned away to recover, leaving her back exposed. Harrison was on it immediately and got the tap.
Harrison entered as the favorite and active champion, and the win was her first successful defense of the UFC bantamweight title. She won the belt from Julianna Pena at UFC 316 in June 2025. This matchup was originally booked for UFC 324 in January, the promotion’s first card under Paramount+, but Harrison needed neck surgery and the fight was scrapped.
The résumé behind her is absurd. The 36-year-old Ohio native won judo gold at the 2012 London Olympics, the first American man or woman to do it, then won gold again in 2016. She moved to MMA, won a PFL title and has now beaten the woman widely called the best female fighter ever, in the Garden.
My take: that back-exposed turn from Nunes will be the GIF everybody posts, and Harrison deserves full credit for pouncing on it in a split second. But I’ll remember the mic more than the finish. A champion standing in the most famous arena in the sport, with Nunes just beaten, using her biggest spotlight to tell kids who’ve been through what she went through that she’s still here. That’s the clip I’d send to someone who has never watched a fight.
