Kayla Harrison’s trip down to 135 pounds has become a sore spot of UFC 334 fight week. On Friday, one day before the card, News Karnataka ran a report under the headline that her weight cut “sparks concern.” Only that headline is available here. What onlookers actually saw on the scale, and how rough the cut looked, can’t be confirmed from what’s been published so far.
The worry has a history behind it. Harrison built her MMA résumé at lightweight. She won the PFL’s 155-pound tournament in 2019 and won it again in 2021. Bantamweight sits 20 pounds below that, and she has made the drop work so far. She signed with the UFC in January 2024 and beat former champion Holly Holm in her debut. On June 7, 2025, she took the bantamweight title from Julianna Peña with a second-round kimura.
That Peña win was her most recent fight. She’s coming off a layoff of roughly 17 months, sitting at 19-1 and ranked No. 1 at women’s bantamweight in Knockout Daily’s rankings. She also holds two Olympic judo golds, from 2012 and 2016, both at 78 kg. The American Top Team fighter is the first woman to win Olympic gold and a UFC title.
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The opponent makes any question about her gas tank louder. Amanda Nunes is a two-time UFC bantamweight champion and a former featherweight champion. She’s the only woman to win UFC titles in two divisions, and plenty of people consider her the best female fighter ever. A Harrison who shows up flat on Saturday would be handing an opening to the one fighter in the division who has spent a career punishing openings.
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Nunes, for her part, looked loose at Thursday’s press conference. MMA Orbit posted that she jumped up and embraced Josh Hokit after he made a crude joke comparing the two sides of the dais. Hokit meets Ciryl Gane in the main event. At media day a day earlier, Championship Rounds wrote that Harrison “had to take a second look at Alex Pereira at UFC 334 media day.” It was a light moment that fit a week with plenty of jokes, though nobody has said publicly how she felt coming off the scale.
The answer comes Saturday, Nov. 14. If the cut cost Harrison anything, Nunes will probably find it within the first five minutes.
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