Ailin Perez Predicts Harrison vs Nunes Will Not Happen
Ailin Perez does not expect Kayla Harrison to meet Amanda Nunes on November 14.
The Argentine bantamweight said the UFC 334 title fight at Madison Square Garden is more likely to fall apart than reach the cage. She pointed to Harrison’s neck and the 135-pound cut as the reasons.
“My prediction that the fight’s not going to happen,” Perez said. “I don’t think that Kayla’s going to make it to the fight.”
She added the medical piece in plain terms. “I think that she’s not 100% with her neck yet, and I really don’t think that she’s going to be able to make 135.”
Harrison won the belt in June 2025 and has not fought since neck surgery pushed the original Nunes date off the January calendar. Nunes is coming back from a retirement that began after her June 2023 title defense.
Perez wants that vacancy if it opens. She said she hopes the pairing never happens because she wants Nunes herself.
“I think it won’t happen,” she said. “I hope it doesn’t happen, and I think I’m going to be fighting Amanda.”
If the champion and the former two-division titleholder both show up, Perez still wants a defined role. “But if it does end up happening, I will be the official backup of that fight.”
That is her ask, not a UFC announcement. The promotion has not named an official replacement for the co-main event.
Perez just beat Norma Dumont by unanimous decision at UFC Vegas 121 on September 26. The win pushed her to No. 2 in the women’s bantamweight rankings and stretched her UFC winning streak at 135 pounds.
She used that spot to argue she is the cleanest option if November needs a substitute. In Spanish she said there is nobody in the division who deserves the fight more than the No. 1 contender with seven straight wins, four over top-10 names and two over top-five opponents.
The other thread is personal. Perez said Nunes is angry for more than one reason, and she put the coaching split first.
“I think that Amanda Nunes is very angry with me, for multiple reasons,” she said. “The biggest reason being that I stole her, her coaches, and now they’re coaching me and not her.”
She said those coaches stayed because they see a younger fighter with a longer runway. Perez did not name them on the call.
She also said Nunes has already framed her as an easy night. “She also says that I’m an easy fight, just like every other girl says I’m an easy fight and then I end up beating her.”
Perez tied that talk to a gym threat she said Nunes made directly. “Amanda specifically said that she’s going to go to the gym and find me to beat me up there.”
That is why she believes Nunes would take the fight if Harrison came off the card. “She’s angry with me. I took her coaches. She probably thinks I’m an easy fight. So yeah, 100% she would fight me. Why not?”
Perez is positioning herself for the version of that night that does not go as planned. She is coming off a ranked win, she is already talking about 135 pounds, and she is volunteering to sit as the spare if Harrison’s neck or the weight cut becomes the story again.
The next move belongs to the champion’s camp and the matchmakers. Perez has said she will be ready either as the replacement or as the official backup if the original fight survives.
