Kayla Harrison thinks her combat with Amanda Nunes might assist take ladies’s blended martial arts to the following degree.
The 2-time Olympic gold medalist added one other accolade to her illustrious resume at UFC 316, defeating Julianna Pena to say the bantamweight world title.
Instantly following the combat, Harrison was joined by Nunes contained in the Octagon for a face-off that had combat followers chomping on the bit to see the 2 icons lastly throw down on MMA’s largest stage.
Showing on The Ariel Helwani Present following her large win in The Backyard State, Harrison advised that so long as ‘The Lioness’ brings her A-game, they’ll ship one of many biggest fights in ladies’s fight sports activities historical past and transfer the needle for WMMA as an entire.
“I need Amanda to be her very best self,” Harrison mentioned. “I need the 2 finest fighters on the earth to step in that cage and to depart all of it on the market and to placed on a hell of a combat for the world to see and to carry ladies’s MMA to an entire new degree. Might the very best girl win.”
After a quick delay, Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes is nearer than ever
This isn’t the primary time Harrison vs. Nunes was on the desk. The 2-time PFL champion was readily available when Nunes first met Julianna Pena for a bantamweight title conflict at UFC 269. As an enormous favourite, everybody assumed that ‘The Lioness’ would retain her title, setting the stage for a showdown between her and Harrison.
Nonetheless, Pena had different plans, scoring one of many largest upsets in UFC historical past.
Although it could have been delayed, Harrison’s dominant defeat of Pena has seemingly aligned the celebrities, promising us probably the most anticipated matchups in MMA historical past, no matter gender.