Kayla Harrison plans on having a serious conversation with the UFC after fighting Amanda Nunes in the near future.
The women’s bantamweight champion is currently on the road to recovery from neck surgery, which forced her out of UFC 324 in January. Harrison (19-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) hasn’t spoken to the UFC about it just yet, but after fighting Nunes (23-5 MMA, 16-2 UFC), she intends to make it clear she wants to fight at 145, or she may call it a career – with the exception of another potential superfight against Valentina Shevchenko (26-4-1 MMA, 15-3-1 UFC).
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“Yeah, dude. That’s the plan,” Harrison said on “Death Row MMA” while speaking with Jorge Masivdal and Chris Duncan. “They don’t know it, but once I f*ck up Amanda, I’m just gonna be like, ‘Listen.’ … I’m gonna ask them to make a 145 so I can be more active.
“Unless Valentina wants to fight, because I know she’s a 125er, then I would cut down again. ‘Cause she’s a legacy fight. I’d fight her at ’35. I think other than that, I’ll either – if they don’t want to make 145, then I’m just gonna say like, ‘Thank you, it’s been great.’ You know? I’m satisfied. It’s just taking years off my life. I’m not gonna lie to you.”
Harrison came into the UFC having never fought at 135 pounds before. The Olympic judoka won a pair of gold medals at 172 pounds and won PFL championships at 155 pounds. Her highly anticipated arrival in the UFC came with a lot of question marks about how her body would respond to cutting to bantamweight. She weighed in at 136 pounds for her debut against former champion Holly Holm, and went on to win the fight by submission in Round 2.
“The first time I made weight, I was heavier that I’ve ever been,” Harrison said. “I got up to like 175, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ll never make weight again.’ It came back down eventually, but yeah, I was like 175 after I fought Holly. I had to have surgery too, so then it’s like, you’re not moving.”
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Harrison dialed things in over her next couple of fights and was able to make championship weight at 135 pounds to fight Julianna Peña last June. However, she knows fighting the scale is not something she intends to do many more times in her career, as she said she’s only made weight “by the grace of God.” Then what comes after fight week is a whole different issue she would like to avoid experiencing any longer.
“I have like a scarcity complex after my fights because I’ve been starving for so long,” Harrison said. “I’ll walk by like Veggie Straws. I don’t even like those things, but if my kids have a thing of Veggie Straws, I’ll eat like the whole bag just cause I’m like, ‘I might not be able to eat again soon.’ There’s like this mind thing – I had to get over it. Like I’m not as bad as I was the first time, but the first time I made 135 dude, after that, you want to talk about a bender? I was out of control.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Kayla Harrison reveals ultimatum for UFC after Amanda Nunes fight
