Jon Anik thinks that a Kayla Harrison versus Amanda Nunes contest could be the most attention grabbing fight in women's MMA since Ronda Rousey embarked on her comeback. During an interview on MMA Junkie that took place prior to UFC 316,
UFC commentator Jon Anik was already speaking highly about the possibility of an Amanda Nunes return to the cage for a clash with Harrison.
Now that the multi-time Olympic gold medalist and former multi-time PFL champion is now a UFC titleholder and after Harrison called out Nunes to face off with her inside the octagon, it seems academic that they will be fighting next. Prior to the June 7th co-main event pay-per-view clash for the women's 135 pound strap in Newark, Anik said,
“How do you quantify what a big fight is? What is your metric, what is your criteria? Is it pay-per-view buys? Because Ronda Rousey versus Amanda Nunes, to me, is singularly hard to top—even though you can argue that Amanda Nunes versus Cris Cyborg had maybe a different component to it that might have made it just as big."
"Kayla Harrison versus Amanda Nunes in theoretical terms—Harrison’s first title defense—would be as big, but it’s hard for me, as we sit on the brink of UFC 316, to suggest to you that it would singularly be the biggest. But it would be as big for me as what was the biggest fight prior, which I guess for me was Amanda Nunes versus Ronda Rousey. And let’s not discount Julianna Peña, who does hold a win over Amanda Nunes."
Anik continued, "She might come out of the defend-the-title side of all this, and she has that heat with Amanda, whereas Kayla and Amanda, I think, some heat can come up from all this from the stuff that we've heard behind the scenes that may or may not have happened at American Top Team before Nunes left. But I guess, first things first, that fight has to happen.”
When Ronda Rousey Attempted Her Return to MMA
Ronda Rousey's attempted return to MMA also involved the aforementioned Amanda Nunes and it ended up being one of the big statement wins in the latter's career. At UFC 207 in December 2016, it took forty eight seconds for Nunes to send Rousey into a retirement from MMA and on a path to WWE after a torrent of punches halted their bantamweight title bout. Curiously enough, that was Nunes' first defense of the bantamweight belt and she attempts to make her own return to mixed martial arts while Kayla Harrison is keen on making her own kickoff championship defense.
