Latest news with #AmandaNunes
CTV News
9 hours ago
- Sport
- CTV News
UFC returning to Vancouver with show at Rogers Arena
Amanda Nunes celebrates after defeating Irene Aldana during a UFC 289 women's bantamweight title bout in Vancouver, on Saturday, June 10, 2023. Nunes announced her retirement after the bout. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck The UFC is returning to Vancouver for an Oct. 18 Fight Night show at Rogers Arena. It will mark Vancouver's seventh UFC event since 2010, tying Toronto for the second-most UFC events in Canada (behind Montreal). The UFC's most recent visit to the city was UFC 289 in June 2023, drawing 17,628 fans and a $5.14-million live gate. The mixed martial arts promotion has held 35 shows across 11 cities in Canada, debuting with UFC 83 in Montreal in 2008. In other Canadian UFC news, flyweight Jamey-Lyn Horth of Squamish, B.C., has a new opponent in American Vanessa (Lil Monster) Demopoulos, replacing injured Czech Tereza Bledá, on the UFC's June 14 Fight Night card in Atlanta. Horth (7-2-0) is coming off a December loss to American Miranda (Fear The) Maverick, who is ranked 11th among 125-pound contenders. Horth is 2-2-0 in the UFC. Demopoulos (11-7-0) is 5-4-0 in the UFC but has lost her last two outings. --- This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2025.
CTV News
11 hours ago
- Sport
- CTV News
UFC returning to Vancouver with show at Rogers Arena
Amanda Nunes celebrates after defeating Irene Aldana during a UFC 289 women's bantamweight title bout in Vancouver, on Saturday, June 10, 2023. Nunes announced her retirement after the bout. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck VANCOUVER — The UFC is returning to Vancouver for an Oct. 18 Fight Night show at Rogers Arena. It will mark Vancouver's seventh UFC event since 2010, tying Toronto for the second-most UFC events in Canada (behind Montreal). The UFC's most recent visit to the city was UFC 289 in June 2023, drawing 17,628 fans and a $5.14-million live gate. The mixed martial arts promotion has held 35 shows across 11 cities in Canada, debuting with UFC 83 in Montreal in 2008. In other Canadian UFC news, flyweight Jamey-Lyn Horth of Squamish, B.C., has a new opponent in American Vanessa (Lil Monster) Demopoulos, replacing Czechia's Tereza Bledá, on the UFC's June 14 Fight Night card in Atlanta. Horth (7-2-0) is coming off a December loss to American Miranda (Fear The) Maverick, who is ranked 11th among 125-pound contenders. Horth is 2-2-0 in the UFC. Demopoulos (11-7-0) is 5-4-0 in the UFC but has lost her last two outings. --- This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2025.
USA Today
12 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Demetrious Johnson: UFC champion Kayla Harrison fighting Amanda Nunes 'is a very bad idea'
Demetrious Johnson: UFC champion Kayla Harrison fighting Amanda Nunes 'is a very bad idea' Demetrious Johnson thinks Amanda Nunes is a bad matchup for new UFC bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison. Harrison (19-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) claimed the bantamweight title by submitting Julianna Peña (12-6 MMA, 8-4 UFC) in Saturday's UFC 316 co-main event. Immediately after her win, she welcomed Nunes into the octagon for a faceoff. Johnson had an interesting take on what Harrison should do next. "If I was Kayla Harrison, I would retire from the sport," Johnson said on his YouTube channel. "Don't fight Amanda Nunes." Johnson thinks former UFC dual-champion Nunes (23-5 MMA, 16-2 UFC) has the far better resume than Harrison, and will pose big problems for her. "Kayla Harrison is calling out Amanda Nunes. I think that's a very, very bad idea," Johnson said. "Yes, Kayla Harrison is a world champion, but when you look at the roster of what Amanda Nunes fought and what Kayla Harrison fought, there's no f*cking comparison. There's not one comparison at all. You had Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Cat Zingano, (Germaine De Randamie), Valentina Shevchenko. Just the talent pool Amanda Nunes has fought in mixed martial arts, blows everything that Kayla Harrison has done in her entire career, just the talent pool. "Amanda Nunes doesn't need to come out of retirement. I think the only thing that's enticing her to come out of retirement is probably how easy the fight might be. They trained together. ... She's got to get Amanda Nunes down. Amanda Nunes is not a very small girl. She's very big. She's very strong for her size. I think for Amanda Nunes if she comes back, she is putting her legacy on the line, but it's not something that I'm jumping out of my seat to see. I'd rather see Amanda Nunes stay retired, and then maybe see Kayla Harrison fight one more time and then retire."
Forbes
a day ago
- Sport
- Forbes
Amanda Nunes Says Kayla Harrison Was The Reason She Left Gym
While newly crowned UFC women's bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes say there is no animosity between them, Nunes says Harrison was behind her decision to part ways with her former gym, American Top Team. "Yes, I did [leave because of Kayla Harrison]," Nunes told ESPN after UFC 316. "Because when she got there, she started training with my coach, Mike Brown, Anderson [Franca], everybody, and I knew this fight would happen one day. "If I was there now, that would be a problem. A huge problem for [American Top Team owner] Nunes said the feeling at ATT was that a fight between herself and Harrison was inevitable. "As soon as she got a microphone, she used to talk about me," said Nunes. "From that moment, we already started getting like, not different, but like we always respect each other in the gym – but we knew the energy. We never would be able to connect. "Here and there we were training, also I was completely out of shape. Every time I'd come back to the gym, somehow we're training and I'm like damn, I'm going to train with Kayla when I'm completely out of shape? That's not fair. Now we're going to see each other when I'm at full-time in camp, 100 percent strong 'The Lioness' and she's going to know exactly who I am inside the cage." Harrison captured the UFC women's bantamweight title on Saturday night of the co-main event of UFC 316, dominating Julianna Pena on her way to a late third-round submission win to claim that title. After the win, Harrison invited Nunes, who was on hand at the Prudential Center in New Jersey for UFC 316, to step into the Octagon, where Harrison said, "I feel like we knew this was going to happen. I have the belt, she has the legacy. Let's put it on the table." If Nunes is not the best woman to compete in MMA, she is at least in the conversation. Nunes debuted with the UFC in 2013 with a 7-3 record. She opened her career with the promotion with two first-round knockout wins. However, in her third outing under the UFC banner, Nunes fell to Cat Zingano, losing that fight by TKO in the third round. Nunes would not lose again until December 2021. During her 12-fight winning streak, Nunes won the bantamweight title and defended it five times, beating notable names Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, and Holly Holm by first-round stoppage. Nunes also captured the featherweight belt during that title run, defending it twice. Nunes took ownership of the 145-pound crown with a first-round knockout of Cris Cyborg, who had not tasted defeat in over 13 years. In a flat and somewhat confusing performance, Nunes lost her 135-pound crown in December 2021, falling to Julianna Pena by second-round submission. In July 2022, Nunes regained the bantamweight belt with a decision win over Pena. She defended the crown against Aldana, who replaced the injured Pena in what was to be a trilogy bout. Nunes then retired from active competition as the bantamweight and featherweight champ. "Double champion forever," Nunes said after the win. "This is the perfect night to retire." Nunes' split with ATT came after her loss to Pena. Nunes, who is not in the UFC drug testing pool and has not been tested since 2023, said she would like to face Harrison before the end of the year. UFC CEO Dana White said during the UFC 316 post-fight press conference that the promotion would discuss the matchup and the weight class for the Harrison vs. Pena fight during Tuesday's matchmaking meeting.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Kayla Harrison survived sex abuse to win Olympic gold. She's now a UFC champ with a mega fight ahead
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Around her neck or around her waist, Kayla Harrison has a knack for winning gold. One key distinction, of course, between the Olympics and professional mixed martial arts is what happens in the immediate aftermath of a monumental victory — there is no four-year wait for the next fight. Advertisement The next challenger is ready for a confrontation inside the MMA cage. Harrison barely had minutes to cool down after a dominant submission win earned her the 135-pound championship — in front of a packed house that included President Donald Trump and former boxer Mike Tyson — when she called out the seemingly retired, former champion and 2025 UFC Hall of Fame inductee Amanda Nunes. 'I see you Amanda! Come on up, Amanda,' Harrison bellowed from the cage. Nunes stepped out of retirement and into the fray, the two former training partners shook hands and exchanged a few pleasantries before the fighters struck a fierce, staredown pose. Advertisement Just a little something for the poster. 'It felt big,' UFC President Dana White said. The moment indeed felt like the kickoff for something special, one more super fight for Harrison in a career sprinkled with them over different fight disciplines, fight promotions — almost always with the same result. Harrison's hand raised in victory. 'Everything I ever wanted is happening,' she said. Her biggest reward, in an adulthood full of professional triumphs, came Saturday night at UFC 316 at the Prudential Center when she made 135-pound champion Julianna Peña quit late in the second round to win a championship in only her third UFC fight. Advertisement She's used to proving she's a champion at the highest level, from the Olympics to the cage, leaving only destruction in her wake. No U.S. judoka — man or woman — had ever won an Olympic gold medal before Harrison beat Britain's Gemma Gibbons to win the women's 78-kilogram division at the 2012 London Olympics. She won gold again four years later at the Rio de Janeiro Games and made her MMA debut in 2018. The 34-year-old Harrison was a two-time $1 million prize champion in the Professional Fighters League lightweight championship division before she moved on to UFC last year. She won her first two UFC bouts and her record — now a sparkling 19-1 in MMA overall — coupled with her fame made her a contender for an instant title shot. Through it all, Harrison has been open about the years of physical and mental abuse inflicted by a former coach leading into the Olympics. She was victimized as a teen, revealing she even thought of quitting judo and of suicide. Harrison turned to her deep faith — 'I trust God' — that has steadied her along the way and she wrote a book about recognizing and overcoming trauma. Advertisement She's turned into an advocate of sorts for abuse, and as the best active female MMA fighter continues to elbow her way into the public eye, Harrison speaks out candidly and without shame about her experience. 'I'm well removed from it,' she said. 'I'm no longer that 10-year-old girl, that 16-year-old little girl. I'm an adult now. I feel like God gave me this story for a reason. It's my job to use it to try and make the world a better place. I want to talk about it.' Harrison reeled off grim child abuse statistics and noted, 'that's just the kids who say something.' 'How do we stop that? We stop it by having a conversation,' Harrison said. 'We stop it by looking at it in the eye and putting a face to it.' Advertisement That face is now one of an elite MMA champion. 'I don't ever want another little girl or little boy to feel alone, to feel dirty, to feel ashamed,' Harrison said. 'There is hope. There is a shiny gold medal at the end of the tunnel. There is a UFC belt at the end of the tunnel.' Harrison made quick work of Peña — who authored one of the great upsets in UFC history when she stunned Nunes for the belt in 2021 — to add another championship to her fight collection. Harrison took a page from her judo career before the bout and bowed to Trump as a sign of respect. White, the long-time Trump ally, fastened the belt around Harrison's waist inside the cage and encouraged her to say hello to the president. Advertisement She hopped down from the cage and draped her belt over Trump's shoulder as he stood from his cageside seat. They hugged and she posed for photos with the president and his entourage. 'The president of the United States is giving me a kiss on my cheek and I'm like, holy (cow),' Harrison said. 'And then Mike Tyson is right there! I'm like, am I in a movie right now? What is happening?' She later pitched a trip to the White House as is customary for other sports champions. Harrison seemed like she'd rather grind through another grueling weight cut than answer which path was tougher, winning Olympic gold or an MMA title. She conceded picking a winner was like picking a favorite child, before noting 'I don't have any favorite children.' Advertisement Harrison, of course, is proud to have lived her MMA dream as a single mom and playfully threatened to scold her daughter and son if they were up past midnight to watch her go to work. Tragedy struck in late 2019 when Harrison's mother had a stroke and her stepfather died months later, leaving Harrison's young niece and nephew without a guardian (her sister was out of the picture). Harrison became an instant caretaker — and, a mother as she eventually adopted both children. How about it, Harrison vs. Nunes in the main event of a UFC pay-per-view? 'I'm a mom,' Harrison said, laughing. 'The earlier you put me on the card, the better.' Advertisement Nunes, who vacated the 135-pound title when she retired in 2023, is not currently in the UFC's drug testing pool. She needs at least six months of random drug testing before she can compete. It's a minor hiccup and only builds the hype and anticipation for the bout. 'We're definitely going to see each other in the future,' Nunes told Harrison inside the cage. Harrison tapped the UFC championship belt that rested on a news conference table and realized it meant much more than some polished gold that was just wrapped around her waist. What's ahead for Harrison — a super fight, greater riches, maybe even a trip to the White House — pales to what she endured on her journey toward staking her claim as the best in the world. Advertisement 'I feel like my spirit is unbreakable and my faith is unshakable,' she said. 'Who I am as a person is someone that I'm proud of. Yes, this belt is amazing. But the journey to get here is what matters most to me.' ___ AP sports: Dan Gelston, The Associated Press
