LAS VEGAS – While Dana White has been pretty coy about his interest in bringing free agent Kayla Harrison to his promotion, the UFC boss was a little more open following the shocking result of UFC 269’s co-main event.
“Let me tell you what,” White told reporters, including MMA Junkie, following Saturday’s UFC 269 event at T-Mobile Arena. “If Amanda Nunes had won tonight, the Kayla Harrison fight would be one of the biggest fights that you would have ever seen.”
Harrison was cageside for Saturday’s event, which saw then-double-champ Nunes (21-5 MMA, 14-2 UFC) put her women’s bantamweight belt on the line against Julianna Pena (11-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC), who had long declared she was ready to shock the world and dethrone “The Lioness.”
Pena wasn’t given much of a chance, at least according to the oddsmakers, but she threw caution to the wind and went toe-to-toe with the Brazilian slugger before locking in a fight-ending rear-naked choke in the second round of the night’s co-main event.
With two-time PFL champ Harrison (12-0) currently on the open market, White previously acknowledged the two had met but didn’t reveal any further details. However, Harrison has been asked repeatedly about her willingness to fight her American Top Team stablemate Nunes.
Harrison has consistently said that she hopes to one day be known as the greatest of all time and would be willing to face Nunes to prove it, though she wouldn’t want it to be viewed as anything other than a respectful sporting competition.
After the loss, though, it’s doubtful Harrison would view the contest as a necessary evil, and it wouldn’t seem the UFC would be quite as interested, either.
White deemed that a rather unfortunate reality as he considered what might have been.
“These are those things, man,” White said. “For like a Kayla Harrison, the Amanda Nunes fight was huge. I mean, if they would have faced off, it would have been a massive, you know, mega-million-dollar fight.”
To see White’s full post-fight interview, check out the video below.
Dana White: Amanda Nunes vs. Kayla Harrison would’ve been ‘one of the biggest fights ever seen’