There is so much that goes into this one that we’re going to have to dedicate a full long-form piece to it in the build-up to this event, but suffice to say that this bantamweight championship bout between reigning champ Kayla Harrison and returning Hall of Famer Amanda Nunes is an absolutely epic affair.
Harrison completed her ascent to the top of the 135-pound weight class with a second-round submission win over Julianna Pena at UFC 316 in Newark. It was a dominant showing by the two-time Olympic gold medalist, who advanced to 3-0 in the Octagon and 19-1 overall with her 14th career stoppage win.
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Nunes, who was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame last summer, hung up her gloves following a dominant win over Irene Aldana at UFC 289 in June 2023, exiting as a two-division champion and the consensus greatest female fighter of all time. When she departed, “The Lioness” had beaten every woman to hold the bantamweight and featherweight titles, and now she returns looking to reclaim her throne and make that fact true once more by taking out Harrison.
In addition to being a colossal pairing that everyone was clamoring for prior to Nunes’ departure and Harrison’s arrival in the UFC — and since as well — there is some personal tension here, too. The co-main event combatants both trained at American Top Team, and ever-present talk of a potential fight between the two was a big part of the reason Nunes decided to pull up stakes, establish her own space, and take a more boxing-style approach to her preparations.
This is a fascinating pairing, and how it shakes out will not only dictate the course of things in the division but also impact the legacies of each woman going forward.
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