{"id":150276,"date":"2025-09-17T17:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T17:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/150276\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T17:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T17:57:09","slug":"kayla-harrison-sparred-amanda-nunes-before-she-even-had-her-first-mma-fight-it-was-sketchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/150276\/","title":{"rendered":"Kayla Harrison sparred Amanda Nunes before she even had her first MMA fight… ‘It was sketchy’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes have a well documented history with each other, ahead of their suspected fight in the UFC.<\/p>\n

This past June at UFC 316, Kayla Harrison<\/a> proved once again why she is one of the greatest athletes in the world when she won the UFC bantamweight title, submitting Julianna Pena in round two<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Immediately after the fight, Harrison was faced with the fighter she will make her first title defense against, as Amanda Nunes stepped into the Octagon for a face off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And with the UFC set to host an event at the UFC White House in 2026<\/a>, it seemed inevitable that their only current American champion, Harrison, would compete on the event.<\/p>\n

\"KaylaPhoto by Ed Mulholland\/Zuffa LLCHarrison sparred Nunes before she even made her first MMA appearance<\/p>\n

With the fight continuing to be talked about, Nunes officially re-entered the UFC drug testing pool<\/a> earlier this year, allowing for negotiations to begin properly.<\/p>\n

A fight between Harrison and Nunes, who is widely regarded as the greatest female fighter ever, would be one of the biggest women\u2019s fights ever.<\/p>\n

Not only because of both fighters\u2019 skills, but also because Harrison and Nunes used to be teammates at American Top Team and have trained with each other before.<\/p>\n

And Harrison has somewhat lifted the lid on how their training sessions together went, making a shock admission about their sparring.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a big reason for me moving down to Florida, I had tried a bunch of different gyms and I came down and met Mike Brown, my second day there I sparred her and I was like, \u2018Holy s\u2014\u2018,\u201d Harrison told MMA Junkie.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah (on the second day I sparred her), I don\u2019t know what (they were thinking), yeah, it was sketchy, but ok. I hadn\u2019t had an MMA fight yet actually.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur paths didn\u2019t cross much in training because she was already up here and had a lot of privates and 1 on 1\u2019s, but I always made myself readily available\u2026 We trained a little bit but not a lot, which for me was unfortunate,\u201d Harrison continued.<\/p>\n

Harrison \u2018has some ideas\u2019 for after she beats Nunes<\/p>\n

Harrison is hoping to fight \u2018The Lioness\u2019 at the beginning of 2026, potentially even before the UFC hosts an event at the White House.<\/p>\n

And although many fans believe that if she defeats the Brazilian there isn\u2019t anything left for her to achieve in the sport, the 35-year-old has revealed she has \u2018some ideas\u2019 for after that fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo (I wouldn\u2019t retire), I have some ideas but step by step, one thing at a time. I\u2019ve got, really, yeah, if it all goes according to plan, yeah, I think it\u2019s gonna be great, I\u2019m very excited about the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotta go put on my work boots and train hard and beat Amanda and when I do that then there\u2019s gonna be a lot of opportunities I think,\u201d Harrison continued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes have a well documented history with each other, ahead of their suspected fight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[30389,64,63,786,35956,785,85,787],"class_list":{"0":"post-150276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-amanda-nunes","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-kayla-harrison","13":"tag-mma","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}