The largest ladies’s bantamweight title combat in current reminiscence will happen on January twenty fourth at T-Cellular Enviornment in Las Vegas. Kayla Harrison will defend her newly received championship in opposition to Amanda Nunes within the co-main occasion of UFC 324 in her UFC debut on Paramount+.
Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes
Harrison received the Efficiency of the Night time bonus and the 135-pound belt at UFC 316 in June when she defeated Juliana Peña within the second spherical in opposition to Kimura. The win ended her speedy rise to the UFC bantamweight ranks. She had debuted simply three fights earlier and had simply received the title in document time with a call over Holly Holm and Ketlen Vieira at UFC 300.
In the meantime, Nunes will return from almost two-and-a-half years of retirement to face her former American Prime Group teammates. The 37-year-old final competed in June 2023, when she retired from competitors after retaining the bantamweight title in opposition to Irene Aldana. She was inducted into the UFC Corridor of Fame this summer time and watched Harrison’s coronation from cageside at UFC 316, hinting {that a} return could also be on the horizon.
The Brazilian legend’s resume speaks for itself. She holds the longest successful streak in UFC ladies’s historical past at 12, has amassed 10 finishes as a UFC fighter, and have become the primary lady to carry two UFC titles on the similar time along with her KO of Cris Cyborg in 2018. Her victories over the likes of Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm, Raquel Pennington and Germaine de Randamie have formed ladies’s MMA for greater than a decade.
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In a current interview with Bloody Elbow’s Kyle Diamond, Harrison mentioned whether or not defeating Nunes after which flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko would solidify her standing as the best feminine fighter of all time. When requested instantly, Harrison replied:
“Sure, I believe that may make me the best of all time. For a finite time period, sure, like a finite time period. And the following Amanda, the following Valentina, the following Kayla will come and stand on my shoulders. You recognize, like there are loads of ladies that I am standing on that shoulder proper now. I believe Joanna is the best of all time. You recognize, like there, it is subjective. And my aim, yeah, my aim is to get to that mark – possibly a day, possibly every week, who is aware of. However I simply need to see how far I can go.”
This remark reveals Harrison’s understanding of how MMA’s legacy will evolve. She acknowledges the cyclical nature of the game, with every era constructing on the final. She stands on the shoulders of earlier warriors, and future rivals will in the end surpass what she achieved.
Harrison has a 19-1 MMA document at UFC 324, however her solely loss in 2022 was a five-round resolution to Larissa Pacheco. Earlier than becoming a member of the UFC final January, she received the PFL Light-weight Championship twice and had a formidable profession within the promotion. The 35-year-old American has made a troublesome weight reduce, dropping from 155 kilos to 135 kilos for every UFC look, however she notes that weight reduction takes a toll.
Nunes has a 23-5 document in MMA and 16-2 within the UFC. All of her UFC losses have are available in Las Vegas, and UFC 324 shall be her tenth look in Las Vegas. Harrison shall be competing there for the second time.
The combat itself has a larger conspiracy than simply the title at stake. The 2 fighters skilled collectively at American Prime Group earlier than Nunes left the health club. When Nunes entered the Octagon after Harrison’s victory at UFC 316, she pointed on the new champion and mentioned she knew this matchup was coming.
