UFC 324 kicked off the year (and the $7.7bn Paramount partnership) with much fanfare and a slew of exciting fights. But the night before the event had everyone watching with bated breath as Cameron Smotherman collapsed on his way backstage after making weight. Once again, ‘sanctioned cheating,’ as Joe Rogan once called weight cutting, proved how fighters are literally knocking at death’s door in the process. Well, one UFC champion has wised up to the dangers and has a rather unrealistic demand for Dana White to avoid drastic cuts. And if he can’t make it happen, he might just lose this champion.

The current UFC 135 lbs champ, Kayla Harrison, made her second appearance on Jorge Masvidal’s Death Row MMA podcast and dropped her retirement plans out of the blue. Harrison pulled out of the UFC 324 fight against Amanda Nunes because of her neck injury. So, after settling the unfinished business with ‘Lioness,’ the Florida native eyes retirement if the UFC doesn’t bring back the women’s featherweight division.

“Yeah, dude. That’s the plan,” Harrison said on Death Row MMA with Jorge Masvidal and Chris Duncan. “They don’t know it, but once I f—k up Amanda, I’m just gonna be like, ‘Listen.’ … I’m gonna ask them to make a 145 so I can be more active.”

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Yet, the only current American undisputed UFC champ floated another possibility of making 135 lbs if Valentina Shevchenko challenges her.

Unless Valentina wants to fight, because I know she’s a 125er, then I would cut down again. ‘Cause she’s a legacy fight. I’d fight her at ’35. I think other than that, I’ll either – if they don’t want to make 145, then I’m just gonna say like, ‘Thank you, it’s been great.’ You know? I’m satisfied. It’s just taking years off my life. I’m not gonna lie to you,” she added. 

When it comes to cutting extreme amounts of weight, there have been many fighters like Conor McGregor (featherweight) and Alex Pereira (middleweight) who went down from their natural weight class. But in the case of Harrison, it’s been even more extreme. For those who don’t know, the Florida native competed as a 170-pounder in judo and was the 155 lbs champion in PFL.

So, in that case, Harrison is already cutting around 20 lbs more than she used to in PFL. For a naturally lean woman like her, most of the weight-cut stress comes from draining water from her body. As a result, the current UFC bantamweight queen has faced medical issues.

After Harrison beat Ketlen Vieira at UFC 307, she revealed that her performance looked off because she was hospitalized for urinating blood, showing clear signs of kidney stress, which happens when fighters cut too much weight.

Despite the difficulties, Harrison hasn’t missed making the 135 lbs mark in the UFC, but she looked visibly drained in her championship fight against Julianna Pena at UFC 316. In that case, her eyeing a featherweight move is quite natural here. However, the question remains: Will Dana White reopen the female 145 lbs division?

The UFC CEO made it clear that the division was retired when Amanda Nunes hung up her gloves at UFC 289. The belt was introduced in 2016, at UFC 208, where Germaine de Randamie won it against Holly Holm. She vacated later, and Cris Cyborg won it at UFC 214, dropping it later to Nunes at UFC 232.

Nunes defended against Felicia Spencer (UFC 250), Megan Anderson (UFC 259), and Irene Aldana (UFC 289), and that was the end of it. “I don’t make these decisions right after a fight,” White told reporters after UFC 289. “She [Nunes] told me when she walked over to the side of the cage that she was retiring. I don’t know, but it [shutting down the division] makes sense.” So, it’ll be interesting to see whether they open it up again for Kayla. 

Now, Kayla Harrison isn’t the only one who has threatened Dana White with retirement. Recently, another fighter revealed that he’s going to retire if the UFC doesn’t meet his demands.

Renato Moicano threatens UFC with retirement after Vegas 115 win

One of the most animated 155 lbs fighters in the UFC, Renato Moicano, scored a stellar win this past weekend. The Brazilian completely dominated his American Top Team teammate Chris Duncan in the UFC Vegas 115 main event at the Apex, winning the fight via rear-naked choke submission. However, as fans expected him to call out a ranked fighter, Moicano used the mic to declare that he’d retire if the UFC doesn’t pair him up with a well-known opponent next.

“You better give me somebody that is easy and better in the rankings, otherwise I am going to retire because I don’t want to fight bulls— guys,” Moicano said at the UFC Vegas 115 Octagon interview. “I’m making a lot of money with YouTube, follow me on YouTube motherf—ers!”

Well, though the Brazilian lightweight threatened the promotion with retirement demands, it was clear that he wanted to continue competing in the UFC. Later, Moicano himself called out Brian Ortega, whom he lost to at UFC 214 and was scheduled to rematch at UFC 326, which fizzled out because ‘T-City’ withdrew due to injury.

That said, will Kayla Harrison actually take retirement after the Amanda Nunes fight? What do you think?