Kayla Harrison: Amanda Nunes fight won't have Jorge Masvidal vs. Colby Covington build-up

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UFC women’s bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison doesn’t see a dramatic build-up for her expected title fight against Amanda Nunes.

Harrison (19-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) is gearing up to face her former American Top Team training partner Nunes (23-5 MMA, 16-2 UFC). Upon transitioning to MMA, Harrison was excited by the idea of training with Nunes, but the former UFC dual champion eventually opted to part ways with her longtime gym.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka Harrison opened up on their training history.

“She is a big reason for me moving down to Florida,” Harrison told MMA Junkie of Nunes. “I had tried a bunch of different gyms, and I came down, met Mike Brown. My second day there, I sparred her, and I was like, ‘Holy sh*t!’ Yeah, sketchy, and I hadn’t even had an MMA fight yet actually. Very quickly I was like, ‘Oh, this is it. This is where I’ve got to be.’

“You want to be the best, you’ve got to train with the best, but our paths didn’t cross a ton in training. She was already way up here and had a lot of privates and one-on-ones. So I always made myself readily available. Like, anything you need, I’m your girl, use me, pick me. So yeah, we trained a little bit but not a lot to be honest, which, for me, was unfortunate.”

When Harrison and Nunes meet, it won’t be the first time former American Top Team teammates will have competed against each other. Most notably Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington fought at UFC 272. There was plenty of bad blood between the two, which eventually led to Masvidal getting arrested for attacking Covington outside of a Miami restaurant.

However, Harrison said don’t expect any of that for her fight against Nunes.

“For me, it was not weird. There was never any animosity or tension,” Harrison said. “I think that when we did train together, I always wanted to make it so that she would want to train with me again, and I wanted to encourage and foster that relationship. Again, I had nothing but respect for her. When she won, I felt joy. And when she lost, I was devastated because she was a part of American Top Team. I’m a very loyal person. I’m a ride-or-die. I started my career at American Top Team, I had all my fights there, and so when you’re on our team, I take that seriously.

“I know everyone jokes that I’m self-proclaimed team captain, but I’m like the old lady in the team, and I’m definitely the team captain at this point. It’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly, so there’s no animosity from me. There never was. I have nothing personal against her. I think she’s a great fighter, I think she’s a great champion, I think she’s a good person, a good mother. This isn’t going to be like a Colby-Masvidal. This is going to be like, hey, these are the two best fighters in the world. Let’s go out there and put it all on the line, which is the most beautiful and exciting thing for me.”