Amanda Nunes has been extremely vocal regarding historical sparring sessions against Kayla Harrison, and now the new UFC champion has opened up about their previous training together.
This past Saturday at UFC 316, Kayla Harrison became the new women’s bantamweight champion after utterly destroying Julianna Pena on her way to a second round submission finish.
Immediately after the fight, Harrison was faced with her likely next opponent as the former women’s double champion Amanda Nunes stepped into the cage for an impromptu face off with the new champion.
Despite the Brazilian’s announced comeback, Harrison’s manager still has his doubts that Nunes will actually return to action, claiming that she clearly wanted Pena to beat Harrison this past Saturday.
Harrison makes admission about sparring sessions with Nunes
Ahead of what could be one of the biggest fights in women’s MMA history, there is even more interest surrounding the fight because the two used to train with each other at American Top Team.
When the Olympic gold medalist was looking for MMA gyms to join at the beginning of her journey in the sport, she chose the famous ATT because of its incredible facilities and stable of fighters.
At that time, ‘The Lioness’ was part of the ATT team and when Harrison first joined, they trained with each other several times.
Nunes recently touched on their sparring sessions together, claiming that she was never at 100% and that Harrison will feel the real her when they actually fight.
Despite that, the new women’s bantamweight champion admitted this past Monday that Nunes ‘kicked my ass’ during their sparring sessions.
“Yeah I was (thinking of potentially fighting her in the future from day one),” Harrison said on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“I came down to visit and I sparred with her actually, on day two… Yeah, I think pretty much right after that I thought ‘This is it, this is where I’m gonna go.’
“It went good, she kicked my ass but one of us stopped after two rounds, so,” Harrison claimed Nunes stopped after two rounds of sparring.
Harrison’s sparring sessions against Nunes came before she had even had her first professional fight in MMA.
Harrison vs Nunes will be delayed until 2026 unless Nunes receives exemption
Although there is currently a lot of hype surrounding this super-fight, it will unfortunately be delayed until at least 2026.
At the UFC 316 post-fight press conference, Dana White revealed that ‘The Lioness’ is still not back in the Anti-Doping testing pool and she must be in it for six months before she can return to action.