What happens if Kayla Harrison wins at UFC 334? Analyzing the implication

Kayla Harrison is the UFC women's bantamweight champion. Unfortunately, whether she wins or loses in her upcoming title defense at UFC 334, she's destined for a very short title reign. She'll face the legendary Amanda Nunes, who will be making her return to the octagon after a short three-year retirement, and no outcome bodes well for the division.

Kayla Harrison will leave 135 in a no-win situation

The future of the UFC women's bantamweight division is in concerning hands. That isn't to say Kayla Harrison isn't a worthy champion. She's a two-time Olympic judo champion, a two-time PFL women's lightweight champion, and won the UFC women's bantamweight title by submitting ex-champion Julianna Peña within two rounds at UFC 316. The first problem is that she won't stick around for long. So, even if she manages to defeat Amanda Nunes at UFC 334, which is very possible, she's already spoken about how much of a toll the weight cut to bantamweight takes on her body. After all, she spent most of her career at women's lightweight, so 135 pounds is proving too grueling for her in the long-term, especially at 36 years old.

So, it should come as no surprise that Harrison has since claimed that she will retire following her upcoming title defense against Nunes, unless the UFC reopens its women's featherweight division. This will leave the women's bantamweight division in a situation where its last champion was never beaten for the belt. She simply gave it up, and it will delegitimize whoever captures the belt next, especially if it's someone Harrison has already beaten. This is the same problem that befell the division when Raquel Pennington became the UFC women's bantamweight champion after a unanimous decision win over Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 297. At the time, the belt had been vacated by Nunes, who had once dominated Pennington in a brutal, lopsided beatdown, culminating in a fifth-round TKO at UFC 224. Because of this, no one looked at Pennington as the real champion.

On the topic of Nunes, if she does beat Harrison to regain the belt, the situation doesn't change much. It'll only mean that the division never moved on from Nunes' dominance despite her previous retirement, and that even its new champion was a fraud waiting to get dethroned by the GOAT, who has beaten every other women's bantamweight champion in history. Then what? Will Nunes stick around at 38 years old? It's unlikely. If she leaves, the division is directionless, but if she sticks around and beats everyone else again, it'll just send the message that a 38-year-old Nunes is still better than every other 135-pounder on the roster. It's a stain on the division, and there's no easy solution barring someone new emerging to beat whoever emerges from UFC 334 as champion.