A former opponent of Amanda Nunes has weighed in on the recent pullout that Kayla Harrison had to do from her planned Nunes clash at UFC 324. Harrison was set to defend her bantamweight crown against Nunes on January 24th until reported injury issues were said to have come up. As reported by The Eagle Tribune, Harrison has herniated discs in her neck that will have to be repaired with surgery.

Cris Cyborg chimed in on the situation when the former UFC featherweight champion retweeted a Sherdog article covering the scrapped co-main event bout for UFC’s first numbered event of 2026. Cyborg lost her hold on the UFC’s 145-pound crown to the aforementioned Nunes when she was memorably finished with strikes in what remains as one of her two pro MMA losses to this day.

Touching on the Harrison-Nunes fight falling out for later this month, by way of her personal X page, Cyborg said,

“You have to wonder if @KaylaH is more durable at 145. I can’t imagine these cuts to 135 being a sustainable career.”

Amanda Nunes was predicted to pull out of UFC 324 by Kayla Harrison and the latter’s manager

Amanda Nunes was thought to be a wildcard in terms of showing up for this return bout, according to past comments from Kayla Harrison, and the reigning UFC champ’s management representation. With Nunes not having fought since a June 2023 win over Irene Aldana, it would make a degree of sense that there previously were some doubts would be out there about how smoothly this return to MMA might go.

Harrison had previously spoken to Ariel Helwani with a quip about how she wasn’t necessarily worried about Nunes hitting the 135-pound mark, but that the thought had come to her. The multi-time Olympic gold medalist and former PFL champ also referenced past instances of Nunes having certain issues that have resulted in main event withdrawal, and Harrison’s manager also doubled down on that sentiment a bit.

Ali Abdelaziz mentioned to Submission Radio that he asked the UFC to have a backup fighter in place in case his charge, Harrison, would be faced with a vacancy created by Nunes. It is unclear as to if they will keep Nunes on this card or if the UFC will simply re-book it for a later date, but it would seem as if the UFC is going to pursue the latter option.