Harrison clears mental and physical hurdles after neck surgery ahead of Nunes title fight

Kayla Harrison admits she questioned whether she would ever feel like herself again following neck surgery that forced her off UFC 324’s card in January, but the women’s bantamweight champion says she has come through the experience ready to defend her title against Amanda Nunes at UFC 334 on 14 November in New York City.

Harrison withdrew from her scheduled title defence against Nunes earlier this year to undergo surgery for herniated discs in her neck. Speaking on the Deep Waters podcast, she described the operation as the most serious of four surgeries she has had in the past four years — a stark contrast to the decade she spent without going under the knife between her two Olympic judo gold medals.

“To be honest, it was rough in the beginning,” Harrison said. “I think more just obviously physically, but mentally. It was such a big surgery and I went ten years without surgery. I had reconstructive knee surgery between my two Olympics and then I went ten years with no surgery. But in the last four years, I’ve had four surgeries, back-to-back-to-back. This one was the most serious and I was kind of like, am I ever going to be OK again? It got to the point where I was questioning whether I was ever going to feel like myself again. But I’m back.”

The champion was candid about the mental battle that accompanied her physical rehabilitation, framing her return as a deeply personal mission rather than a financial one.

“I had to fight like hell to get through this neck surgery and just mentally to get back to a place of like, ‘Oh yeah, I am that b*tch,’” she added. “I don’t need money. I don’t care; we could do this at ATT [American Top Team]. This is just for me. I want to go out there and see what I’m made of.”

Harrison’s rescheduled clash with Nunes — one of the most decorated fighters in UFC history — now takes place at UFC 334, with the women’s bantamweight title on the line in New York City.