Harrison-Nunes Sparring Was "Less than 10," Coach Says

Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes have trained together. The coach talking about it puts the total at "Less than 10."

That's the backdrop heading into UFC 334 on Nov. 14 at Madison Square Garden. UFC announced the card, and the bantamweight title fight is the first defense for Harrison, the two-time Olympic judo gold medalist, against Nunes, the former two-division champion. Cageside Press lists it as the co-main at MSG.

Here's the irony. The one thing that could tell you something about the grappling is the one thing that barely exists.

What ESPN has

Brown also says Harrison always wanted to train with Nunes, but Nunes never wanted to train with her.

Nunes tells ESPN her side of it. She says she asked Harrison, "You planned this the whole time, right?" She also says Harrison "didn't do anything wrong, wanting to come after me."

Read that as you like. Fewer than 10 rounds isn't a training camp. And if one fighter didn't want the sparring, you're not going to learn much about the other from it.

The takedown read

The numbers don't hand you an easy answer either. UFC's athlete pages list Harrison at 13% takedown accuracy and Nunes at 15%. Neither is a takedown machine inside the cage.

On Nunes's grappling credentials, UFC lists her as a jiu-jitsu black belt and a judo brown belt. Those are real credentials.

Our read

Sparring history only matters if it changes the first clinch. It might give her a feel for the weight and the pressure, though. That's worth something.

So is it a real read or a talking point? Possibly both. "Less than 10" is a small number, and it's an easy one to repeat when the cameras show up.

We'll find out Saturday whether anyone got close enough to try a hip throw.

Photo: UFC.com

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