COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – Kayla Harrison lost a pivotal training partner when Amanda Nunes decided to part ways with American Top Team.
Nunes (21-3, 14-3 UFC), the UFC’s featherweight champion, amicably left her longtime gym to start her own team, something she’s wanted to do for years. Two-time PFL lightweight tournament winner and Olympic gold medalist judoka Harrison (12-0) understands Nunes’ decision but admits she’s sad to have such a valuable and accomplished training partner leave the gym.
“You don’t really very often get two such high-level competitors, I think, pushing each other like that,” Harrison told MMA Junkie. “Like, I’m just really blessed that I had that for the time that I did.
“So I think we are all bummed a little bit by it. Like, I know I am personally bummed just because it’s hard to find good big girls to (train) with to begin with. But I was going with the greatest, so that was huge for me. But you know, it is what it is.”
With Nunes’ departure, does that increase the possibility of a super fight between the two? Harrison, who remains a free agent, said no matter what happens, she expects there will be mutual respect between them.
“If we fight, we fight,” Harrison said. “It’s still not gonna be like, you know, Colby and Masvidal-like drama. There’s no – I don’t think there is anyway. But right now just give me a contract, and we’ll go from there.”
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Kayla Harrison feels ‘bummed’ by Amanda Nunes’ American Top Team departure
