Amanda Nunes, left, returns to the Octagon after a layoff of more than three years to face her former American Top Team teammate Kayla Harrison on Saturday at UFC 334 in New York. Illustration by ESPNBrett OkamotoNov 11, 2026, 07:21 AM ETCloseBrett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN since 2010. He has covered all of the biggest events in combat sports during that time, including in-depth interviews and features with names such as Dana White, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Georges St-Pierre. He was also a producer on the 30 for 30 film: “Chuck and Tito,” which looked back at the careers and rivalry of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. He lives in Las Vegas, and is an avid, below-average golfer in his spare time.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsIn their own ways, Amanda Nunes and Kayla Harrison both waited a very long time for what happened on June 7, 2025.On that evening in Newark, New Jersey, Harrison submitted Julianna Peña to become UFC bantamweight champion.
Nunes, who retired in 2023, was in attendance and eager to make a return to fight Harrison, with whom she shares a complicated past. The UFC allowed Nunes to enter the Octagon immediately after Harrison’s win, so the two could square off on the spot.That single encounter represented something Harrison had worked for her entire career: an opportunity to test herself against the very best. And even after two years away from competition, Nunes, considered the best women fighter in UFC history, remained that gold standard.For Nunes, it was something else: a chance to expose a suspicion she’d held about Harrison for many years.”I asked her, ‘You planned this the whole time, right?'” Nunes told ESPN in January. “I wanted everybody to hear it from her own mouth.
This is what was happening the whole time. You planned this.”Looking back, Harrison says she didn’t understand at that moment the point Nunes was trying to make. The scene was chaotic. She had just fought, won a championship and was suddenly promoting her next fight.
She managed to offer Nunes a simple response, “Let’s do it,” and only later understood the accusation being made.”It didn’t really sink in until I watched it later, and I was like, ‘Oh, she really thinks I have been scheming this since the beginning,” Harrison told ESPN on Nov. 3. “And to be fair, that would be a s—ty feeling. To think this whole time, your own team and coaches plotted against you. That is a terrible feeling that I can’t even imagine.”But it’s just not true.”On Saturday, Harrison (19-1) and Nunes (23-5) will finally meet for the 135-pound championship at UFC 334 at New York’s Madison Square Garden (Paramount, 9 p.m.
ET), in one of the biggest fights in women’s MMA history. Harrison is a two-time Olympic judo gold medalist and one of the most decorated combat sports athletes ever. Nunes is an icon of women’s MMA, its greatest of all time. A two-division champion who overwhelmed such fighters as Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg and Holly Holm during her generational run at the top.If that weren’t enough, Harrison and Nunes have a history.
They spent several years training at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida. Harrison joined the gym in 2018, at the beginning of her MMA career. Nunes, who was already the UFC’s dominant champion when Harrison arrived, left the gym in 2022, and eventually identified Harrison as her reason for leaving. In the time since, Nunes has accused Harrison — and even others at American Top Team — of planning this fight from the very beginning.What unfolded between them could be described as deceit, misunderstanding or paranoia — depending on who you ask.
Both, Harrison and Nunes say that whatever the case, there’s no animosity going into UFC 334. American Top Team owner Dan Lambert, for one, doesn’t believe that.”It’s a hell of a story, and there’s more between these two than they’ll ever let us know,” Lambert told ESPN in January. “They’ll say all the right things about each other. But my opinion?
They probably hate each other’s f—ing guts is my opinion.”When Harrison first arrived at American Top Team, she was looking for a place to build her MMA career with others. She had spent her entire life in judo, and understood that reaching the highest level of even an individual sport, still requires a team. Including training partners.She visited MMA gyms in New Jersey and Las Vegas before making her way to South Florida, where she instantly clicked with the coaches, the lifestyle and — she thought — one of the gym’s prized athletes. Nunes.”When I first met Amanda, she was like, ‘Hey, you need to come here, it’s great, I’d love to have you in camp,'” Harrison said.
“And I was like, ‘Oh, absolutely.’ She seemed nice.”They sparred that week. Harrison was just starting out, and she remembers walking away from the session covered in bruises. They sparred only two rounds, Harrison said, but spending that time with Nunes felt good. Shortly after, she made a full commitment to American Top Team.”I’m the kind of fighter who visualizes the future.
And from the first time I trained with Kayla, I told [my wife and then-UFC strawweight] Nina, ‘I am going to fight this girl.’ The first time we exchanged, I looked at Nina and said, ‘This girl is different.'” Amanda Nunes on Kayla Harrison “It pisses me off thinking about it now, because I moved here with the expectation that we were going to be in it together,” Harrison said. “I moved here thinking, ‘Oh s—, we’re about to level the f— up. It’s going to be me and her. And then obviously it ended up very different.”That expectation came from Harrison’s experience in judo, where, she said, athletes regularly train with — and then compete against — each other.
Harrison has memories of traveling through Hungary, Croatia and France, where she would work with women she might eventually face in the Olympics. For Harrison, there’s no contradiction in that arrangement. Train together, improve together, and compete against each other if and when the time comes. She said she applies that mindset to her training now as a UFC champion, routinely welcoming and rolling with other bantamweights, including No. 15-ranked Bia Mesquita, at American Top Team.”I don’t have a scarcity mindset,” Harrison said.
“I don’t think that for me to win, you have to lose. I think we all have our time and place and rising tides raise all ships.”Nunes views things differently.She said she initially welcomed Harrison, but immediately picked up an energy that was different from regular work. Harrison wasn’t there simply to innocently train alongside her. She was there to ultimately challenge Nunes in every sense of the word.”I’m the kind of fighter who visualizes the future,” Nunes said.
“And from the first time I trained with Kayla, I told [my wife and then-UFC strawweight] Nina, ‘I am going to fight this girl.’ The first time we exchanged, I looked at Nina and said, ‘This girl is different.'”After that first spar, the two rarely worked together again. On this matter, at least, everyone agrees.”How many rounds of sparring, real sparring, between them? Less than 10,” American Top Team coach Mike Brown told ESPN in January. “Kayla always wanted to train with Amanda, but Amanda never wanted to train with her.”Nunes says she never interfered with Harrison’s desire to join the gym and actually believes it was probably the right move for her career.
But she maintains that Harrison should have been honest with Nunes, the coaches — and herself — on her reasons. “She didn’t do anything wrong, wanting to come after me,” Nunes said. “My life is all about the challenge. I love the challenge.
I like that when you look at me, you want what I have. Let’s go.”But own it.”To be fair, in a very real way, Harrison did own it.In 2018, before she’d even competed in MMA, she was already fielding questions about UFC titles, Nunes, Rousey and every other significa
Leave a Reply