Without fighting, Amanda Nunes is lost.
Earlier this month, ‘The Lioness’ confirmed that she would be coming back to the fight game later this year to take on the winner of UFC 316’s co-main event clash between reigning bantamweight queen Julianna Pena and two-time PFL champion Kayla Harrison.
No matter who comes out on top, Nunes’ return to face the winner will likely produce the biggest fight in women’s MMA history. But Nunes’ reason for cutting short her 2023 retirement has nothing to do with fame, fortune, or settling old grudges.
“I literally thought I’d be able to do something, but after a year, everything started getting bad,” Nunes revealed in an interview on UFC Unfiltered with Jim Norton and Matt Serra. “I started having anxiety. I always had a hard time with everything. My life was without a schedule. I needed to do something, so I started training, but for what? I cannot train and not have a goal in my life. I still feel good, I don’t have any injury.”
Amanda Nunes has history with both Kayla Harrison and Julianna Pena
Nunes’ return has undoubtedly added to the hype of Pena vs. Harrison, a fight between two athletes with whom ‘The Lioness’ has a history.
Of course, Nunes went toe-to-toe with Pena on two separate occasions inside the Octagon. Their first meeting at UFC 269 produced perhaps the biggest upset in promotional history after ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ submitted Nunes in the second round of their bantamweight title tilt.
Nunes ultimately took the title back from Pena in a dominant fashion seven months later, prompting Pena to lobby hard for a trilogy fight with the Brazilian. At one point, the fight was booked, but Pena was forced to bow out due to an injury.
Instead, Nunes went on to pummel Irena Aldana for five rounds before laying down her bantamweight and featherweight titles and announcing her retirement from the sport.
As for Harrison, Nunes and the two-time Olympic gold medalist previously trained together at American Top Team, but ‘The Lioness’ opted to leave the gym after it became clear that she and Harrison were on a collision course, even though Harrison was still under contract with the PFL at the time.
“I don’t want to walk in the gym and have a girl there that’s training with my coach… in my gym and, like, attacking me all the time on social media,” Nunes said in a 2022 interview with Daniel Cormier. “And when we walk in the gym and train, we are best friends. It’s like, that’s not gonna work man. If you want to fight me, you’re going to fight me.”
If Harrison manages to take Pena’s title on June 7, as oddsmakers predict she will, it will set the stage for one of the most anticipated fights in mixed martial arts history, regardless of gender.
