Kayla Harrison is back.
To kick off the year as part of a hugely anticipated UFC event at the Paramount, reigning women’s bantamweight champion Harrison is set to compete on January 24 at UFC 324. On his way was former American Top Team teammate and all-time great Amanda Nunes – that was, until a serious neck injury forced Harrison to pull out and require surgery and took nearly a year to recover.
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Now healthy, Harrison is finally good to go, and the fight is set for November 14 in Madison Square Garden in New York at UFC 334. Harrison, 36, admitted on Wednesday’s edition of “The Ariel Helwani Show” that he was not sure if he would ever fight again.
“I haven’t been very well for a long time and it was a struggle,” Harrison said of being crowned. “There were many moments in which I questioned myself, if this was going to be possible, and if I needed to meet with him, so that everything could be done. But I’m coming back.”
No one thing caused Harrison’s injuries, but the accumulation of damage in his fighting life. The two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka has revealed that she has five herniated discs in her neck, which she has been dealing with for some time.
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Even as it was painful. Harrison finally went for an MRI in January, showing that the two disc nerves were completely blocked.
“He got fired up, and it was bad. I just did everything to get a good hold,” Harrison said. “I didn’t want to have surgery, so I did the stem cells pretty regularly to try and fight any more damage. I did anti-inflammatories and arthritis medication and pain medications and nerve pain pills and muscle relaxers and rigorous physical therapy.
“Then it got to the point where, last month, I think December, I had numbness in my arm, and I couldn’t feel three fingers, and I started having some kind of lightning. I lost strength in my right arm, and I was in a really bad spot.”
Harrison recalled being on heavy doses of pain medication. She even goes so far as to simply numb the pain with an epidural shot. It didn’t work when they saw her as one of the UFC New York artists who informed her that she was at risk of permanent damage.
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It was taken at a point where Harrison had barely slept for five days. The pains were like lightning, so sharp that they occasionally roused her.
After the surgery, Harrison admitted that he wondered if he had finally met his match. How close he had come to a great escape, this doubt only increased in the very process of his recovery.
“I was absolutely devastated,” Harrison said. “I think there’s something to be said about being on one rod line and slipping. It felt like that. I was right there. So close, and I didn’t do it.
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“It was a hard pill to swallow, but I’m also grateful for the team around me and the people around me who are like, ‘Listen, of course we want you to fight, but your health comes first. Do you want to have permanent nerve damage? Do you want to be paralyzed? What are you saying? Don’t ask this. Make sure you’re healthy.’ So I am very blessed that I have people around me.
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With something as serious as his neck injury, it seems incredible that Harrison is still in action within the same year. And not just to come back for any fight, but to be the best player ever.
It was only a few months before Harrison started feeling 100% again. She was in a tight spot, to say the least, relegated to the neck exercises, which simply consisted of looking up and down.
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Even now, Harrison still has two herniated discs left to fix once the competition is done. If he had already defended them, he would retire into the sunset, he said.
Kayla Harrison returns to defend her belt against Amanda Nunes on November 14th.
(Chris Unger via Getty Images)
“I’ve had a sore throat for eight weeks,” Harrison said. “I wasn’t allowed to lift more than 20 pounds. So to go from training for my biggest fight to 100 miles per hour to that was like a big drop, and then the mental side of it that comes with it. To go freakin’—I mean, I don’t even know.” I was like crawling. I sat deep and tried and clawed my way back to my senses. that I am the type of Dcum.
“I was in a lot of pain, still. The nerve pain went away immediately, like immediate relief, but the muscles, the bone healing, doing all that PT – you come out with five rounds to spare, and you’re the worst woman on the planet, straight neck strapped.”
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“I feel very humbled by this,” he added.
Harrison has not fought since June 2025, when he became the UFC women’s bantamweight champion, submitting Julianna Peña with a second-round kimura.
This is the longest inactive streak of Harrison’s 20-fight career (19-1) since he began in June 2018. If Nunes didn’t come back from his retirement to make this fight possible, Harrison admitted it probably wouldn’t have come after surgery.
Even now, the world is where this is the last fight for both bantamweight legends.
“I mean, anything is possible,” Harrison said. “What if they offer me a $10 million fight? I’m just saying that anything is possible. I’m already satisfied with my career, let’s go straight. Tomorrow I could walk and be well and have peace. This is for me. I want Amanda, a worthy opponent. She brings out the best in me. I think I bring out the best in her, and it’s worth my time and my effort to win myself against Amanda. I’ll always fight again.