Norma Dumont is not pretending she was fine with Amanda Nunes saying no.
After Kayla Harrison withdrew from the planned UFC 324 title fight because of a neck injury, Dumont said she told the UFC she would take a short-notice fight with Nunes for an interim belt. Nunes passed, and Dumont believes that decision was less about belts and more about protecting the much bigger Harrison matchup. The timing matters because Dumont already put herself forward when Harrison’s injury changed the title picture, and now she is saying out loud what most fighters usually save for private group chats.
“It was a bit frustrating for me. First because I accepted the fight on 10 days’ notice and she didn’t want it, saying she wanted the undisputed belt. It’s frustrating because if she came back just for Kayla, then I imagine she’ll retire after that fight. I feel like there might be some fear of losing.”
“For example, I hear a lot of people telling me, ‘You’re going to fight the No. 11, it’s a very risky fight.’ Man, only people who don’t trust their hands are afraid of risk. I don’t care at all about who they put in front of me. I know my work, I know my level, I know what I’m going to do. The feeling I get is, ‘I don’t want to fight Norma because it’s a tough fight. If I lose, I lose the big fight with Kayla.’ I get it, it’s business. But to me, it feels like there’s some fear of losing to me. That’s how I see it.”
Dumont thinks Amanda Nunes came back for Kayla Harrison, not the division
“Because if she came back and did almost a year-long camp like, ‘I’m back, I’m good, I’m this, I’m that, I’m at my best’, how long are you going to wait for Kayla? We don’t know. It’s already mid-year and Kayla still doesn’t have a fight scheduled. There are possibilities for July or August, but [Nunes] could’ve fought in April. I think that would’ve even been good for her because she’d have come back after three years out, gotten a fight in, and then fought Kayla at the end of the year. I think that would’ve been great, but I don’t see it.”
“Every time there’s a chance to match someone with me, I don’t feel like my opponents see it as a good option. ‘No, maybe next time. Is there someone else? Does it have to be now? Does it have to be this one?’ That’s the feeling I get every time.”
Dumont’s frustration makes more sense when you look at her resume. She turned pro in 2016, started 4-0 on the Brazilian regional scene, and worked her way into the UFC bantamweight mix with wins over Felicia Spencer, Aspen Ladd, Karol Rosa, Chelsea Chandler and Germaine de Randamie. That is not the profile of a safe replacement fight. That is the kind of name contenders suddenly treat like a phone call from the IRS.
“Even if it’s not vacant, I still don’t think I’m next.”
“Since I haven’t seen Amanda interested in fighting me now, I don’t think she’ll fight me later either. To me, Amanda retires if she wins because she only came back for ego, for the rivalry with Kayla, not to become champion again, not to be the GOAT again. I think she came back just for personal beef.”
“If Kayla wins, there are two possibilities. She’ll try to get a fight with Valentina, which is a lower weight class. Valentina is a beast, but she’s small for Kayla. I think Kayla might try to set up a fight where she believes she has the better physical advantage. Or she will retire. I believe that regardless of who wins, the belt becomes vacant right after.”
Nunes has not fought since June 2023, when she beat Irene Aldana by decision and retired as a two-division UFC champion. She remains the only woman to hold UFC titles in two divisions at the same time, and the whole comeback story has been built around the Harrison rivalry rather than a full clean-up of the division. That is why Dumont’s criticism lands, especially with Harrison already talking up the scale of a future fight with Nunes.
“The UFC has always tried to make it happen. I see people online sometimes saying, ‘The UFC is screwing Norma, this is bullsh*t.’ It’s not the UFC. They try every time. They tried Raquel [Pennington] last year, they tried the interim with Amanda, they tried Julianna [Peña] — but the answer is always no. Raquel has a never-ending injury. Julianna is like a leap year, she only shows up every four years.” via MMAFighting
Dumont still has Joselyne Edwards in front of her, but if she wins again, the division will have a harder time pretending she is optional.
