Amanda Nunes walks back into the Octagon on Saturday, November 14, at Madison Square Garden in New York, 1,253 days after she retired as a two-division UFC champion. Waiting for her is Kayla Harrison, the two-time Olympic judo gold medalist who now holds the women’s bantamweight belt Nunes gave up in 2023.
The UFC confirmed the pairing on September 20 during its UFC 331 broadcast. Harrison against Nunes is the co-main event of UFC 334, sitting under a heavyweight title bout in which champion Ciryl Gane defends against Josh Hokit. It is also Harrison’s first defense of the title.
Why Nunes left, and why she came back
Nunes, now 38, stepped away on June 10, 2023, in Vancouver. She had just beaten Irene Aldana by unanimous decision at UFC 289 and used her post-fight interview to announce she was done. She held both the bantamweight and featherweight titles at the time, and no other fighter in UFC history has retired while holding belts in two divisions. The promotion put her in its Hall of Fame, modern wing, in 2025.
Retirement lasted two years. On June 5, 2025, Nunes said she would return to face whoever won Harrison’s title fight with Julianna Peña. Harrison submitted Peña at UFC 316, and Nunes climbed into the cage that night for a face-off.
The first booking fell through. The fight was set for UFC 324 on January 24, 2026, but Harrison pulled out with herniated discs in her neck and needed surgery. A September date was also floated before the bout finally landed on the Madison Square Garden card.
The record Nunes brings back
The numbers explain the build-up. Nunes is 23-5 as a professional, with 13 wins by knockout. Her UFC run includes a 48-second stoppage of Ronda Rousey at UFC 207 and a 51-second knockout of Cris Cyborg at UFC 232 that made her the first woman to hold UFC belts in two weight classes at once.
According to the UFC, she has beaten every woman who has ever held the bantamweight title except the one she faces now. Her list of victims includes Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, Germaine de Randamie, Raquel Pennington and Peña, the only fighter to beat her in the last decade.
Harrison’s path ran through other promotions first. She arrived at UFC 300 already regarded as one of the best women fighting anywhere, submitted Holly Holm on debut, beat Ketlen Vieira six months later and then took the belt from Peña.
What a win would mean
A Nunes win would give her a third reign as bantamweight champion and close the one gap in her bantamweight résumé. A Harrison win would hand the Olympian the biggest victory of her UFC career and the only win anyone has posted over Nunes since December 2021.
Comebacks after long layoffs carry real risk at this level. Nunes has not fought in more than three years, and Harrison has spent much of 2026 recovering from neck surgery, so both women enter the cage with ring rust questions.
Fans looking for more combat sports can read how Canelo Álvarez won a WBC title at 36 in Riyadh, while women’s sport followers can catch up on Mirra Andreeva’s 11-game run against Aryna Sabalenka. More fight coverage sits on our sports page.
The card streams on Paramount+. If Nunes wins, she becomes a three-time UFC bantamweight champion at 38.
Further reading
Image: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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