Amanda Nunes' Daughter Has the Game Plan to Beat Kayla Harrison: "Punch Her in the Face"

Amanda Nunes has spent four months building a game plan for Kayla Harrison. Her six-year-old daughter Raegan already has one ready — and it is considerably shorter.

In the first episode of UFC 334 "Embedded," released Monday, Raegan Nunes was asked how her mother should handle the bantamweight champion on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. She did not hesitate.

"Punch her in the face," Raegan said. "Then, get close and hit her in the cheek with your knee."

Raegan, Nunes' daughter with wife Nina Ansaroff Nunes, had one more wish for the title picture: "I wish for my mom to get the belt every fight, and Kayla loses every fight."

Nunes, 38, returns from a retirement that began in June 2023 to challenge her former American Top Team stablemate for the bantamweight title in the UFC 334 co-main event on Saturday, November 14, at Madison Square Garden in New York. It is the biggest women's fight the UFC can make — and the game plan, at least at home, is settled.

Nunes has not fought since UFC 289 on June 10, 2023, when she beat Irene Aldana by unanimous decision, then laid both of her belts down in the Octagon and retired as a two-division champion. The layoff will be 1,253 days by the time she walks to the cage at MSG.

The return was first booked for UFC 324 in January, but Harrison withdrew after neck surgery, and the UFC waited rather than put Nunes in against anyone else. The two faced off at UFC 316 in June 2025, after Harrison submitted Julianna Pena in the second round to win the belt.

Harrison, 36, is a two-time Olympic gold medalist. She is 19-1 as a professional and 3-0 in the UFC, and Saturday is the first defense of the title she won at UFC 316. She has not fought since winning the belt.

Nunes is 23-5, 16-2 in the UFC, and widely regarded as the greatest women's fighter of all time. Her wins include Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Valentina Shevchenko, Holly Holm, Miesha Tate and Julianna Peña. Harrison is the only woman to hold the bantamweight championship whom Nunes has not defeated.

The rivalry is personal as well as professional. Nunes left American Top Team as Harrison became a fixture there, and she has said the "Lioness" her old training partner saw in the gym is not the one fighting on Saturday.

Nunes has also said the comeback is not a one-night farewell. She intends to defend the belt if she wins — a second retirement is not on the table.

The first Embedded episode follows all four title fighters through the start of fight week. Harrison trains with Chris Duncan at American Top Team. Nunes picks up her kids from school. Heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane visits the New York Giants practice facility, and challenger Josh Hokit gets ready for his first UFC title fight at Jackson Wink.

Gane (14-2, 11-2 UFC) defends the heavyweight title for the first time as undisputed champion against the undefeated Hokit (10-0, 4-0 UFC) in the main event. Hokit has at least one famous believer: Jorge Masvidal told the Deep Waters show he has put $200,000 on the challenger at 5-to-1, a bet that returns $1 million if Hokit pulls off the upset. "I'm betting the house on Hokit," Masvidal said.

For Nunes, the week ends the way her daughter mapped it out — or it breaks a six-year-old's heart. On Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, Nunes will either validate her daughter's confidence or crush it. The plan, at least, is simple: punch her in the face.