Kayla Harrison couldn’t help but laugh at Julianna Pena justifying her post-fight callout of former champion Amanda Nunes because nobody else is doing it.
Following her controversial win over Raquel Pennington to reclaim the women’s bantamweight title, Pena ignored Harrison as the No. 1 contender — who was shown backstage on a split screen set up by the UFC — and instead asked for a trilogy against Nunes, who has been retired since 2023. At the post-fight press conference, Pena said she felt calling out Nunes was necessary because “Kayla never mentioned her name” and the same goes for the rest of the fighters in the division.
Of course, Harrison has talked about fighting Nunes numerous times in the past after they spent years training together at American Top Team but that’s not in her immediate plans right now.
“I’m not going to call Amanda out,” Harrison explained when speaking to MMA Fighting. “I’m definitely not going to call Amanda out until I have the title.
“Then when I feel like I’ve done that, I’m going to build the biggest fight in women’s MMA history. But until then, I’m calling for that title.”
Harrison obviously wants to capture the title first and that road travels through a fight against Pena right now.
Beyond that, the two-time Olympic gold medalist also acknowledges that the biggest obstacle to a potential showdown with Nunes is that she’s still retired.
While Nunes has seemingly hinted at a comeback since UFC 307 ended, she’s still not officially back and even if she declares plans to fight again, she would first have to go through at least six months of drug testing under the UFC’s anti-doping policy.
In other words, Harrison doesn’t want to waste her time on a potential matchup that’s just not happening right now against an opponent who isn’t even on the active roster.
“It just makes me look like an asshole eventually,” Harrison said. “When everyone’s like ‘do you want to fight [Amanda]?’ I’m like yeah and Amanda’s like ‘dude, leave me the f*ck [alone], like shut up! Leave me alone.’
“It’s not personal for me. Of course, I want to fight Amanda. I have great respect for everything she’s accomplished in this sport and to me, there’s no higher honor than saying ‘I want what you have.’ Some 20 year girl walked into [American Top Team] tomorrow and said that to me ‘I’m going to beat your ass someday,’ I’d be like yes, let’s go! That’s the kind of energy I want.”
Nunes may be the long term goal but Harrison only wants to think about the UFC title and Pena for now.
A few bumps and bruises aside, Harrison doesn’t expect that it will take her too long to recover from her win over Ketlen Vieira at UFC 307 but more than anything she hopes Pena doesn’t take another long absence after sitting out for over two years before her showdown against Pennington.
“I’m not waiting two years,” Harrison said. “I also need a little bit of time to recover from the weight cut just because I lose half of me every time. But I’m ready whenever. I will make myself ready.”
