{"id":322861,"date":"2025-12-02T13:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T13:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322861\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T13:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T13:58:07","slug":"harrison-responds-to-ufc-324-main-event-controversy-the-bout-order-is-irrelevant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322861\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrison responds to UFC 324 main event controversy: \u2018The bout order is irrelevant\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC 324<\/a> on January 24, 2026 marks the beginning of the Paramount \/ CBS era of UFC, and the card is packed — so packed that a fight to determine the women\u2019s GOAT is getting co-main status under an interim lightweight title fight.<\/p>\n

Bantamweight champ Kayla Harrison will defend her belt against returning former 135 and 145 women\u2019s champion Amanda Nunes in what will undoubtedly be the biggest WMMA fight in years. That didn\u2019t earn it top billing over Paddy Pimblett vs. Justin Gaethje<\/a> in what many are calling a mockery<\/a> of an interim 155 pound title fight.<\/p>\n

But Kayla doesn\u2019t care about anything but finally knowing when the fight is and being able to prepare.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been patiently waiting for a date and to confirm that this fight is gonna happen,\u201d she said on the Ariel Helwani show. \u201cSo the bout order is irrelevant to me. I make jokes all the time, I would fight on the prelims just because it\u2019s more conducive to the time I go to bed. Like, I\u2019m a mom. I\u2019m in bed at 9PM. So fighting \u2014 it\u2019s gonna be in Vegas, so it won\u2019t be that late, which is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

As always, there\u2019s a lot of speculation that the cut to 135<\/a> is too hard and Kayla could retire at any point. But she\u2019s got some big fights<\/a> lined up: this GOAT fight with Nunes and a potential appearance as the only American-born champ at the June White House card.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel good and feel locked in,\u201d she said of her mindset. \u201cI mean, this is my job, you know? So I\u2019m about a hundred and fifty nine pounds. I\u2019ll know when it\u2019s time [to retire]. But right now, the focus is Amanda. January 24, the GOAT gets dethroned. Yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Harrison vs. Nunes is a big fight, Harrison vs. Ronda Rousey would be even bigger. Both women are Olympic judo medalists who competed in their youth, and Kayla admitted it would be great to fight Rousey in MMA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s too poetic,\u201d she declared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people talk about us fighting, all the Ronda simps are like, \u2018She already beat her twice in judo,\u2019\u201d Harrison added. \u201cAnd I just wanna be like, \u2018Yeah, well, I was 13 and I was being molested.\u2019 I\u2019m probably 14 or 15 [and she\u2019s] 18 or 19. It\u2019s fair. I mean, we were in the same weight class. She beat me. I\u2019m woman enough to admit when I get beat, and she beat me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrison has been very open<\/a> about how she was molested by a judo coach<\/a> between the ages of 12 and 16. She was one of the first young Olympic athletes to come forward at a time where silence was the standard, and she did not get a lot of public support \u2026 except from Rousey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an online forum back in the day when I finally came out about my judo coach molesting me,\u201d Harrison said in an Overdogs podcast back in 2024. \u201cPeople were arguing over whether 13 was the legal age, or when it really started. And Ronda went on the forum and basically told everybody to shut the f\u2013k up.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Ronda Rousey prepping<\/a> for a comeback fight, it\u2019s actually possible we could see these two Olympians face off in the cage in 2026 and make a giant pile of cash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC 324 on January 24, 2026 marks the beginning of the Paramount \/ CBS era of UFC, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-322861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322861","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=322861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}