Kayla Harrison says retirement is close, a month before Nunes title fight

UFC women's bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison said on Monday that her fighting career is nearly over. Speaking on the UFC show Deep Waters, the 36-year-old pointed to four surgeries in four years. She gave no retirement date on Monday and did not call her next fight her last.

Harrison said, according to SB Nation:

"Not long — 100 percent until the wheels fall off, but … four surgeries in four years, the wheels are a little wobbly boys. Yeah, not much longer."

Deep Waters is the UFC's weekly show on Paramount+, hosted by Din Thomas with Chris Weidman, Dustin Poirier and Jorge Masvidal on the panel. MMA Junkie described it as her first interview since the Nunes fight was rebooked.

Harrison has raised retirement before. In April she said she would walk away after the Nunes fight unless the UFC adds a 145-pound division, according to ClutchPoints. Last month Ariel Helwani called UFC 334 a possible "double retirement fight" (MMA Sucka).

The neck surgery

Harrison said she had knee reconstruction between her two Olympic Games, then went a decade without an operation. The last four years brought four in a row, and the neck was "the most serious," she told the panel, per BJPenn. She did not name the other three on the show.

That neck injury wiped out the first Nunes booking, set for UFC 324 in Las Vegas on January 24. "This was two weeks before I was supposed to fight Amanda. I can't lift my arm," she said on Monday, as quoted by MMA Junkie. She called the nerve pain "the worst pain ever."

She had surgery on herniated discs in her neck in New York in January, Cageside Press reported. Her manager, Ali Abdelaziz, told MMA Fighting the UFC flew her there and a doctor warned the injury could paralyse her without an operation, according to Cageside Press.

During the recovery, she said, "It got to the point where I was questioning if I was ever going to feel like myself again. But I'm back." She now says she feels "awesome."

She also said money isn't what keeps her fighting. "This is for me. I don't need money. I don't care," she said, adding that she is "already satisfied" with what she has done.

The fight she still wants

Harrison is 19-1 and 3-0 in the UFC. She submitted Holly Holm at UFC 300 and beat Ketlen Vieira on the cards at UFC 307. At UFC 316 on June 7, 2025, she took the title from Julianna Peña with a second-round kimura (CageOracle). Her only loss was to Larissa Pacheco in the 2022 PFL final.

Nunes, 38, retired in June 2023 straight after beating Irene Aldana at UFC 289. She announced her comeback during UFC 316 week and named the Peña-Harrison winner as her target, per ESPN. The two are former teammates at American Top Team.

The UFC announced the rebooked fight during the UFC 331 broadcast on September 19, Cageside Press reported. It is the co-main event under Ciryl Gane vs. Josh Hokit at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, November 14, according to the UFC. By then Harrison will have been out for about 17 months.

The odds

In the UFC, Harrison has only ever been a heavy favourite. She closed at −450 against Holm, −1048 against Vieira and −658 against Peña (CageOracle). Against Nunes, she is a much shorter favourite.

DraftKings has Harrison at −196 and Nunes at +164, which makes Harrison about a 64% favourite (CageOracle). She opened around −300 at BetOnline when UFC 334 was announced, according to Forbes. Prices can still move before fight week.

We think the shorter price is fair. Harrison is coming off neck surgery and Nunes is the best fighter she has faced, though Nunes has been out even longer, since June 2023.