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UFC women’s bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison has opened up on her return to action following neck surgery.
At the start of this year, Kayla Harrison was set to defend the UFC women’s bantamweight championship against Amanda Nunes. It’s the kind of superfight that comes along once in a generation, and fans were pretty excited to see how these two titans of the mixed martial arts game would match up against one another.
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Unfortunately, we didn’t find out at UFC 324 as planned. This was due to Kayla Harrison undergoing neck surgery to resolve some persistent injuries. Thankfully, it didn’t prove to be career-ending for the champ. Now, their showdown has been rebooked for this weekend in the co-main event of UFC 334.
Ahead of the fight, Kayla Harrison had the following to say about the difficult road to recovery after her neck surgery.
Kayla Harrison opens up on neck injury recovery
“Physically, I was preparing for the biggest fight of my life, and I was obviously having an immense amount of pain, having lightning bolts,” Harrison said. “I was on the verge of having permanent nerve damage, but I was also training as if I wasn’t. So, I was in the best shape of my life, as good of shape as I could be with that – and then I was in a neck brace for eight weeks.
“I couldn’t lift more than 20 pounds. I went from being on a very extreme diet to not being on a very extreme diet. Then after I was in a neck brace for eight weeks, then I was allowed to take that off and lift like 50 pounds. Then after that eight weeks, I was allowed to sprint. So, physically, I did not feel like myself. I did not feel good. I did not feel good in my body.
“Mentally, to go from that high and that low is hard, and when I was finally able to get back on the mat, I really struggled with confidence. I think I was so scared to hurt my neck again, number one. That lack of confidence made me question if I was ever gonna feel like me again.
“So, I had a lot of soul-searching to do, and like digging deep to figure out if this is even (what I wanted). Because my neck didn’t hurt when I wasn’t training. If I was just being a mom, I could be fine. But getting back to the Kayla that I was, was really, really hard. … It’s been hard, but it’s been worth it.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
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