UFC champion Amanda Nunes has revealed Kayla's Harrison "weird" calls to fight her made the decision to leave her longtime gym easier.
Nunes left American Top Team just two months after her bantamweight title loss to Julianna Pena at UFC 269. The Brazilian, who still holds the women's featherweight belt, looks to reclaim her 135lb against Pena in their second meeting at UFC 277 this Saturday. Nunes has since started up her own gym in Florida since leaving ATT.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist and PFL champion Harrison was training alongside Nunes before she left the gym, with Harrison welcoming a potential fight between the pair. Nunes admitted that she found Harrison's approcah to the potential fight "weird" and that it made her decision to leave her old gym a lot easier.
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"When you start attacking me, grabbing the microphone and saying you want what I have, training with my coaches in my gym, things start to get different," Nunes told Mirror Fighting . "In our sport, if you call me out and want to fight me, there's a huge possibility that we're going to face each other in the future. That was one of things that pushed it even more, but the gym was always something I wanted to do. It's not because of Kayla Harrison, that just made it a little easier to move on."
Harrison, who is on course to clinch her third PFL title, was linked with a move to the UFC earlier this year. The former judoka was visibly upset for Nunes when she lost her title to Pena last December, with many fans claiming she reacted that way as it ruined her plans of a fight with Nunes.
Nunes believes that Harrison's reaction to her upset loss was because of their relationship as teammates, but also recognises their fight plans may have had something to do with it. 'The Lioness' claimed that her and Harrison were planned to have a face-off of some sort if she would have beaten Pena.
"She's the kind of fighter that could be in the UFC, if she wants too and the UFC want it as well. So when she started calling me out, things started to get a bit weird. I believe she was upset because I lost, that's because after that fight we were supposed to maybe have a face-off or something. Following that, we may have been able to fight each other but of course, she would have been upset and sad for me because I lost too," Nunes added.
