Kayla Harrison couldn’t assist however snicker at Julianna Pena justifying her post-fight callout of former champion Amanda Nunes as a result of no one else is doing it.
Following her controversial win over Raquel Pennington to reclaim the ladies’s bantamweight title, Pena ignored Harrison because the No. 1 contender — who was proven backstage on a break up display arrange by the UFC — and as a substitute requested for a trilogy towards Nunes, who has been retired since 2023. On the post-fight press convention, Pena mentioned she felt calling out Nunes was needed as a result of “Kayla by no means talked about her title” and the identical goes for the remainder of the fighters within the division.
After all, Harrison has talked about preventing Nunes quite a few occasions up to now after they spent years coaching collectively at American Prime Crew however that’s not in her rapid plans proper now.
“I’m not going to name Amanda out,” Harrison defined when chatting with MMA Combating. “I’m undoubtedly not going to name Amanda out till I’ve the title.
“Then once I really feel like I’ve finished that, I’m going to construct the largest struggle in girls’s MMA historical past. However till then, I’m calling for that title.”
Harrison clearly desires to seize the title first and that street travels by way of a struggle towards Pena proper now.
Past that, the two-time Olympic gold medalist additionally acknowledges that the largest impediment to a possible showdown with Nunes is that she’s nonetheless retired.
Whereas Nunes has seemingly hinted at a comeback since UFC 307 ended, she’s nonetheless not formally again and even when she declares plans to struggle once more, she would first must undergo at the least six months of drug testing below the UFC’s anti-doping coverage.
In different phrases, Harrison doesn’t wish to waste her time on a possible matchup that’s simply not taking place proper now towards an opponent who isn’t even on the energetic roster.
“It simply makes me appear like an asshole finally,” Harrison mentioned. “When everybody’s like ‘do you wish to struggle [Amanda]?’ I’m like yeah and Amanda’s like ‘dude, go away me the f*ck [alone], like shut up! Go away me alone.’
“It’s not private for me. After all, I wish to struggle Amanda. I’ve nice respect for every thing she’s completed on this sport and to me, there’s no greater honor than saying ‘I need what you have got.’ Some 20 yr woman walked into [American Top Team] tomorrow and mentioned that to me ‘I’m going to beat your ass sometime,’ I’d be like sure, let’s go! That’s the type of power I need.”
Nunes could also be the long run objective however Harrison solely desires to consider the UFC title and Pena for now.
Just a few bumps and bruises apart, Harrison doesn’t count on that it’ll take her too lengthy to recuperate from her win over Ketlen Vieira at UFC 307 however greater than something she hopes Pena doesn’t take one other lengthy absence after sitting out for over two years earlier than her showdown towards Pennington.
“I’m not ready two years,” Harrison mentioned. “I additionally want a bit of little bit of time to recuperate from the load reduce simply because I lose half of me each time. However I’m prepared each time. I’ll make myself prepared.”