Nunes warns Harrison 'still makes the same mistakes' ahead of UFC 334 showdown

Amanda Nunes believes her intimate knowledge of Kayla Harrison gives her a decisive edge heading into their UFC 334 co-main event on 14 November at Madison Square Garden in New York — and she is convinced the reigning bantamweight champion has not fixed the weaknesses she identified years ago on the training mat.

“I spar Kayla before,” Nunes said on the Deep Waters podcast. “We sparred, training. Honestly, when she first arrived in the gym a long time ago, I know she evolved a lot, but she still does the same mistakes since we sparred, you know? I studied her a lot.”

Harrison, a two-time Olympic judo champion who transitioned into MMA, trained alongside Nunes at American Top Team during the period when Nunes held titles simultaneously at bantamweight and featherweight. When Nunes retired in 2023 she vacated both belts, and Harrison eventually claimed the 135-pound title — setting up a collision that both fighters had circled for years.

Nunes revealed that the relationship inside the gym was never entirely comfortable, suggesting Harrison kept her guard up when rolling with female training partners. “When she came to the gym, I didn’t feel like she was an open training partner,” Nunes said. “To this day, I don’t see she’s involved a lot with the girls. I think she gets along more with the guys than the girls. We tried many times, but I feel like the energy between me and her — I feel like the energy knew a lot more things than us.”

The tension escalated, Nunes said, when Harrison began publicly calling her out while they were still sharing the same coaches and mats. “I’m the champion in that gym, I brought the belt to that gym — two, not only one,” she said. “When she started to talk about me, I feel like everybody has to come together and say, ‘Listen, Kayla, we have a champion. Maybe when Amanda retires, you can go and try to get the belt.’ But when she started always talking about me, it triggered her to really say, ‘Yeah, I want to fight her.’ Fight me? Yeah, I do it anytime — I do this for a living. The problem is we share the same mat, the same coach.”

Nunes, 36, is fighting for the first time since her retirement, returning to challenge the champion who now holds the title she once defined. Harrison, for her part, has yet to publicly respond to the latest remarks. Their bout is expected to be one of the most anticipated women’s MMA matchups in recent memory, with a shared history that adds a layer of personal stakes rarely seen at this level.