I have never seen anyone as vocal as Kayla Harrison aside from Colby Covington - Chael Sonnen justifies Amanda Nunes' exit from American Top Team

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(L-R) Chael Sonnen, Amanda Nunes, Kayla Harrison, Colby Covington [Images courtesy: Chael Sonnen via YouTube, @amanda_leoa, @espnmma and @colbycovmma via Instagram]

Chael Sonnen believes that Amanda Nunes was fair in her decision to leave the American Top Team (ATT) gym after losing the bantamweight title against Julianna Pena at UFC 269.

Speaking on an episode of Beyond the Fight, Sonnen justified Nunes' decision to exit her old gym after then-teammate Kayla Harrison publicly voiced an intention to pursue a fight with her. 'The American Gangster' said:

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"I have never seen anybody quite as vocal as Kayla aside from Colby [Covington]. But Colby was the one who was asked to leave. I did hear Kayla speaking up and she's saying, 'I'd like to get to the UFC and I think I can win the championship. I've trained with Amanda.' She was speaking up. I enjoyed it, but I didn't consider it from Amanda's standpoint. That's very fair by Amanda."

Sonnen added that 'The Lioness' had no choice but to exit the gym:

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"I don't think she had a choice. If Amanda herself thought my biggest threat is standing right there, the mere fact that my biggest threat is there, I got to count on everybody in here. Everybody in here has got to be aligned with the same goal which is preserving my championship. As soon as that gets dented, trust starts to go down."

Watch Chael Sonnen discuss Amanda Nunes' decision to exit ATT below:

Amanda Nunes recently appeared on an episode of MMA Fighting's Portuguese-language podcast Trocação Franca. Nunes revealed that the PFL star was one of the reasons she decided to leave the ATT gym.

During the interview, the Brazilian stated that she felt uncomfortable training under the same roof as Harrison and UFC bantamweight Yana Kunitskaya, both of whom she viewed as potential opponents.

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Amanda Nunes is open to Kayla Harrison fight

Amanda Nunes seems determined to regain the UFC women's bantamweight gold at this point in her career. However, 'The Lioness' is also willing to share the octagon with Kayla Harrison down the line.

During the same interview with Trocação Franca, the UFC women’s featherweight champion spoke of her willingness to take on the two-time Olympic gold medalist:

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"It's not a fight I didn't want. If the opportunity is there and she wants it, cool, I'm in. A fighter needs challenges, people that talk about you and want to fight you. If she's going to sign [with the UFC] or not, that's up to Kayla. I'll be waiting."

There have been rumours of a superfight between Amanda Nunes and Kayla Harrison for a long time now. However, that seems a bit unlikely at the moment as Harrison has signed a new long-term deal with the PFL. The 31-year-old is currently riding an impressive 12-fight win streak in the promotion and a fight with Nunes, if it does happen in the future, is something to look forward to.

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