Arguably the greatest female fighter to ever make a fist, Amanda Nunes, retired from fighting in June 2022 after successfully defending her bantamweight championship at UFC 289. “The Lioness” retreated to family life but her competitive spirit remained.
It didn’t take long before Nunes began having thoughts of getting back in there. After former teammate Kayla Harrison rose through the 135-pound division, Nunes announced that she’d be coming out of retirement.
On Jan. 24, in the UFC 324 co-main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the former two-time titleholder and the current champion will collide. The former teammates and occasional training partners at America Top Team find themselves as octagon opponents. It’s a destiny Nunes saw early on and led to her departing the famed gym.
“When she got there (at American Top Team), every time that I went to the gym training, if she was there, or I was there, we was partnered up and all these things but it was never like a thing,” Nunes told Paramount UFC Crew.
“I feel like when she started really talking about. me, calling me out, and at the same time as being in the gym and trying to be my training partner. I started to get like a little bit even more far away from here because this is the challenge that I like. So, you’re here next to me. That’s not how I like to do things,” said Nunes.
“If you’re calling me out, if you want to fight me, you’re not supposed to be here training with my coach on the same mat in the same gym. If I’m going to face you, you’re going to be out of here.”
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Nunes decided to leave the gym and knew she and Harrison would eventually stand across the cage from each other.
“At the time she wasn’t even in the UFC yet, but I knew it’s possible. I knew right away when she started calling me out and then talk about I knew because there’s not a lot of people out there, you know, she’s an athlete, she’s a good fighter, and there’s not a lot of people that can keep up with her. I knew that she would make her way to the UFC,” Nunes said.
At UFC 324, many of Nunes’ former coaches and teammates with be in Harrison’s corner and cheering for the champion. Once her home, Nunes sees ATT as her opponent too heading into the first UFC event of the year.
“The attachment that I used to have with the gym, with the coach, people that’s always around me, I don’t have anymore. They are all against me, so I look at them as my opponent too,” said Nunes.
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