Kayla Harrison Submits Amanda Nunes in Round Four to Retain UFC Title at UFC 334

Kayla Harrison Submits Amanda Nunes in Round Four to Retain UFC Title at UFC 334

Kayla Harrison submitted Amanda Nunes with a rear-naked choke at 1:29 of the fourth round at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, retaining her UFC women’s bantamweight title and ending the comeback of the fighter widely regarded as the greatest in women’s mixed martial arts history. According to Reuters, Harrison, a 36-year-old two-time Olympic judo champion, used what the news agency called her “tremendous grappling skills” to wear down Nunes, who was fighting for the first time in more than three and a half years after retiring as champion in June 2023.

The finish, when it came, was sudden. Nunes had landed a left hand early in the fourth round and looked, for a moment, as though she might be finding a second wind. Then Harrison caught a kick, dragged the Brazilian to the canvas, took her back and sank in the choke. Nunes tapped almost immediately. It was only the second time in her career that she had been submitted, and the first since Julianna Peña took her title at UFC 269 in December 2021.

“I think I’m still in shock,” Harrison said afterwards, according to Reuters. “It feels surreal. Sometimes I can’t believe my life. I’m just really grateful, I’m humble, it’s an honour and a privilege to stand before you.”

The victory moved Harrison to 20-1 in professional mixed martial arts and 4-0 in the UFC, and it was the first successful defence of the title she won from Peña at UFC 316 in June 2025. Nunes fell to 23-6 overall and 16-3 in the UFC. In the main event later in the evening, Ciryl Gane retained the heavyweight title with a unanimous decision over Josh Hokit, winning 48-47 on all three judges’ scorecards after a five-round contest that the UFC later named Fight of the Night.

How the fight unfolded

The opening round belonged, briefly, to the challenger. Nunes, 38, looked sharp on her feet from the first exchange, landing a calf kick and a series of right hands that bloodied Harrison’s lip and forced the champion onto the back foot. According to ESPN, Nunes “had seized advantage in the standup fighting” early on, and for the first minute the fight looked like the one Nunes had planned: keep it standing, punish the judoka before she could close the distance.

But Harrison’s answer came midway through the round. She took Nunes down, and although the Brazilian rolled out of the first attempt, Harrison took her down again and held her there, working for an armbar and landing short punches to the side of Nunes’s head. By the end of the round, the pattern of the fight had been set: whenever the two women clinched or went to the canvas, Harrison was in charge.

The second round produced the first genuine surprise of the night. Nunes initiated the wrestling herself and, midway through the round, took Harrison down — the first time Harrison had been taken to the canvas in her UFC career, according to MMA Junkie. Nunes landed knees in the clinch and briefly looked as though she might build on the moment. But Harrison got back to her feet, slammed Nunes to the mat and kept her there for the final two minutes, working from side control with short ground-and-pound and hunting for choke opportunities.

The third round was the closest of the fight, and the one in which Nunes came nearest to changing its course. She caught Harrison off balance along the fence and used the opening for a takedown, then took the champion’s back and worked for a rear-naked choke of her own. She was too high on the back, though, and Harrison worked her way to the top. With a minute left in the round, Harrison landed a right elbow that cut Nunes open above the eye, then another big punch with 15 seconds remaining, and finished the round on top. MMA Fighting scored the fight 29-28 for Harrison heading into the fourth, according to its live coverage.

Then came the finish. Nunes landed a left hand in the opening minute of the fourth, but when she threw a kick, Harrison caught it, threw her slightly off balance and ran to take her back. Within a couple of seconds the choke was in, and Nunes was tapping before her body had even settled on the canvas. The official result, reported by Reuters, ESPN, MMA Junkie and TNT Sports, was a submission by rear-naked choke at 1:29 of round four.

Gane survives Hokit in a heavyweight classic

The main event that followed was, by the UFC’s own judgement, the fight of the night. Ciryl Gane, of France, retained the heavyweight title with a unanimous decision over Josh Hokit, an American who had entered the bout unbeaten in ten professional fights. All three judges scored it 48-47 for the champion after five rounds fought, according to MMA Junkie, “at a frenetic pace”.

Hokit, a former San Francisco 49ers player who came to mixed martial arts through Bellator and the Professional Fighters League before earning his UFC opportunity on Dana White’s Contender Series, shot for a takedown in the opening seconds and spent the first three rounds pressing Gane backwards, throwing punches in volume and never giving the champion space to work his technical striking. By the third round, according to MMA Junkie, Gane “had his mouth open, sucking wind” and “appeared to be coming to a screeching halt”.

Then the fight turned. Gane found a second wind, worked short body punches in the clinch and began landing kicks at distance, and in the fifth round both men, energised by the finish line in sight, traded freely until the final bell. When it sounded, the crowd at Madison Square Garden was on its feet. Gane climbed the cage to catch his breath; Hokit, who had flipped the champion off several times during the bout, had to settle for the first defeat of his professional career.

The win was Gane’s first defence of the undisputed heavyweight title. He had won interim gold in June with a technical knockout of Alex Pereira, and was then named champion when Tom Aspinall vacated the title because of an extended eye injury — an injury caused, according to MMA Junkie, by a Gane eye poke. The UFC said afterwards that Gane and Hokit had set a record for the most strikes in a heavyweight bout, and awarded both men $100,000 as Fight of the Night.

Thompson’s farewell, Mesquita’s record and the rest of the card

The rest of the card at Madison Square Garden produced its own stories. Stephen Thompson, 43, a two-time welterweight title challenger, stopped Charles Radtke with a head kick and punches at 2:54 of the third round in what was announced as the retirement fight of a veteran known as “Wonderboy”. According to MMA Junkie, the finish snapped a three-fight losing run for Thompson, came by the same kind of spinning hook kick with which he had begun his UFC career, and was his first finish in nearly 11 years that was not a corner stoppage. Thompson also collected a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus.

Bia Mesquita, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist, submitted Macy Chiasson with a rear-naked choke at 3:23 of the first round, earning a $25,000 finish bonus and, according to MMA Junkie, her fourth straight submission to open a UFC career — passing the company record of three held by Ronda Rousey. Cesar Almeida, one of the biggest underdogs on the card, upset the unbeaten knockout specialist Donte Johnson with a first-round technical knockout at 3:20, in a bout fought at a 190-pound contract weight at Almeida’s request, and also took a $25,000 finish bonus.

Elsewhere on the card, Caio Borralho beat Yousri Belgaroui by unanimous decision, Kevin Holland and Uros Medic fought to a majority draw, Luis Gurule edged Bilal Hasan by split decision, Chris Duncan beat Drew Dober by unanimous decision, Terrance McKinney knocked out the veteran Jim Miller in 1:53 of the first round, Melquizael Costa beat Jared Gordon by unanimous decision, Juan Diaz beat Heili Alateng by unanimous decision, and Evan Elder beat Samuel Sanches by unanimous decision. Harrison’s own $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus completed a night on which the UFC handed out four $100,000 bonuses and two $25,000 finish bonuses.

Two comebacks in one cage

What made the co-main event more than a title fight was that both women were, in different ways, coming back. Nunes had not fought since 10 June 2023, when she beat Irene Aldana by unanimous decision at UFC 289, placed both of her championship belts on the canvas and announced her retirement on the spot. She left as the reigning champion in two divisions, bantamweight and featherweight, having never lost either title. She was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2025.

Her record on her return — 23 wins and five defeats, with 11 title-fight victories, the most in UFC women’s history — was built on names that define the sport. She knocked out Ronda Rousey in 48 seconds at UFC 207 and Cris Cyborg in 51 seconds at UFC 232, and beat Valentina Shevchenko twice, Holly Holm, Miesha Tate, Germaine de Randamie and Julianna Peña. She lost the bantamweight title to Peña in December 2021, won it back in a rematch in July 2022, defended it against Aldana, and walked away.

Speaking before the fight, Nunes said she had retired because she was burned out. “When I stepped out, I needed the rest because I was literally on a roll, fighting for so long — defended the belt in two divisions, and I never stopped. I was burned out,” she told UFC.com, according to MMA Mania. She also said she had feared that if she kept fighting while unhappy, she risked losing. She wanted more time with her family and had been dealing with lingering nerve damage from years of fighting. She said that if she won on Saturday, she would not leave again — she planned to defend the belt.

Harrison, meanwhile, had not fought in 17 months, the longest layoff of her career. She won the bantamweight title from Peña at UFC 316 on 7 June 2025 in Newark, submitting her with a kimura at 4:55 of the second round in only her third UFC appearance, and the fight with Nunes was originally booked for UFC 324 in January. Harrison withdrew from that date after suffering a neck injury, and underwent surgery in January on five herniated discs in her neck, including a two-level neck fusion. The fight was rebuilt for Madison Square Garden, and the two former American Top Team training partners finally met almost eleven months late.

At Thursday’s press conference at the Garden, Harrison had already been looking past Saturday. She told Nunes that once she had beaten her, she would hand her an automatic rematch — at 145 pounds, for the featherweight belt. The offer matters because the women’s featherweight division no longer exists: the UFC retired it when Nunes walked away in 2023 holding both belts. A rematch at featherweight would mean bringing a division back from the dead.

Analysis: Why It Matters

The fight was won where everyone knew it would be won

There was never much mystery about how this fight would be decided. Nunes is the most dangerous striker in women’s MMA history; Harrison is the most accomplished grappler the sport has ever seen, the only American judoka to win an Olympic gold medal, twice over. The question was whether Nunes could keep the fight standing long enough for her striking to matter, or whether Harrison could drag it to the canvas, where her judo and her top control would take over. The answer, over four rounds, was unambiguous: whenever the fight went to the ground, Harrison won it. Nunes’s most interesting tactical choice was that she kept going there voluntarily — initiating the wrestling in the second round, taking Harrison down in the third, and working for a choke from the champion’s back. It was brave, and it was also the decision that lost her the fight, because every grappling exchange ended with Harrison on top. Nunes fought Harrison’s fight, and Harrison was better at it.

The greatest-of-all-time argument now has two names in it

Before Saturday, the debate about the greatest female fighter in MMA history was a short one. Nunes was the consensus answer, and the case for her was overwhelming: two divisions, 11 title-fight wins, victories over every champion her divisions produced. Harrison’s claim was thinner — two Olympic gold medals and a UFC title won in her third fight for the promotion. That has now changed. Harrison did not merely beat Nunes; she submitted her, and she did it by taking the fight to the one place Nunes is supposed to be weakest and making it look inevitable. She is also, as her Wikipedia entry records, the first female fighter to win an Olympic gold medal and a UFC championship. Nunes remains the greater career, on any honest reading. But the argument is now a two-person one, and Harrison’s name belongs in it permanently. That is what a win like this does: it does not settle the debate, it enlarges it.

The layoff told on both women, in different ways

It is tempting to explain Nunes’s defeat with a single word — rust. Three and a half years is a long time out of the cage, and there were moments, particularly in the first round, when she looked like the fighter she had been, and moments later when she looked like a fighter remembering, in real time, how hard this is. But the rust explanation is too simple, and it is unfair to both women. Harrison had also been out for 17 months, the longest layoff of her career, and she had come back from surgery on five herniated discs and a two-level fusion of her neck. She was not the fresher fighter; she was the fighter whose absence had been caused by injury rather than choice. The difference was not time away. It was that Harrison’s game is built on attributes — strength, balance, technique, control — that survive a layoff better than Nunes’s game, which is built on timing and sharpness, the two things that erode fastest when a fighter is not competing. Nunes’s striking was still there in flashes. Her timing was not, and against Harrison, a half-second is the whole fight.

The 145-pound offer is the most interesting sentence of the night

Harrison’s promise at Thursday’s press conference — an automatic rematch at 145 pounds, for the featherweight belt — deserves more attention than it has received. The women’s featherweight division does not exist. The UFC closed it when Nunes retired in 2023, and there has been no serious suggestion since that it would return. Harrison is proposing to bring it back, and to do so by giving the woman she has just beaten the chance to win a belt in a division that would have to be rebuilt around her. It is a generous offer, and it is also a shrewd one: it keeps Nunes in the sport, it gives Harrison the chance to become a two-division champion herself, and it creates the biggest women’s fight the UFC could make next year. Whether the UFC wants a featherweight division again is a separate question, and the promotion has shown no enthusiasm for it. But Harrison has put the idea on the table, in public, and it will be difficult to ignore if Nunes wants it.

The heavyweight division has a real champion again

It would be a mistake to treat Gane’s win as a footnote to the co-main event. The heavyweight title has spent the past year in an odd state: won on an interim basis, then inherited when Tom Aspinall vacated it because of an eye injury. A championship that arrives by vacating is always open to the charge that it was not truly won, and Gane knew it. Hokit gave him the hardest possible first defence — a five-round war, fought at a pace heavyweights are not supposed to sustain, in which the challenger won the early rounds and looked, for long stretches, like he might take the title in his first championship fight. Gane survived it, found his range late, and won on all three cards. He is now a champion who has defended his belt against a live, dangerous challenger, and the division has something it has lacked for a while: a titleholder whose claim nobody can reasonably dispute. Hokit, meanwhile, lost nothing except his unbeaten record. He proved he belongs at the top of the division, and his next fight will be one of the most interesting the UFC can make.

What to Watch Next

1. Harrison’s decision on her future. TNT Sports reported that Harrison indicated after the fight that she would take some time to decide on her future. At 36, and after neck surgery, a retirement announcement would not be a surprise — but neither would a defence, or the 145-pound move she proposed at the press conference.
2. Whether the UFC revives the featherweight division. Harrison’s offer of a rematch at 145 pounds depends on the promotion bringing back a division it closed in 2023. Watch for Dana White’s comments in the coming days.
3. Nunes’s next move. Nunes said before the fight that if she won she would stay and defend the belt. She lost. Whether she fights again — against Harrison or anyone else — will say a great deal about whether this comeback was a one-night return or the start of a second career.
4. Gane’s next defence. The heavyweight champion has now defended his title once. The division’s next challengers will queue up quickly, and the UFC will want a date for his second defence before the year is out.
5. Hokit’s rebuild. The American lost for the first time as a professional, but he pushed the champion to the limit over five rounds and set a heavyweight striking record in the process. His next opponent will show how the UFC rates him.
6. Stephen Thompson’s retirement. “Wonderboy” ended his career with a vintage spinning hook kick finish and a $100,000 bonus. Expect tributes, and expect the UFC to find a role for one of its most popular fighters.
7. Bia Mesquita’s rise. Four straight submissions to open a UFC career is a company record, passing Ronda Rousey. At 9-0, the Brazilian is now a genuine contender, and her next fight should be against a ranked opponent.

Sources

• Reuters — Harrison submits Nunes to retain women’s UFC bantamweight belt
• MMA Junkie — Kayla Harrison submits Amanda Nunes, lays claim to GOAT status at UFC 334
• MMA Junkie — UFC 334 results: Ciryl Gane denies Josh Hokit title reign, wins all-time brawl
• MMA Junkie — UFC 334 bonuses: Heavyweight title classic steals show in NYC
• TNT Sports — UFC 334 results: Ciryl Gane out-points Josh Hokit, Kayla Harrison submits Amanda Nunes
• theScore — Harrison submits Nunes in Round 4 to retain UFC women’s title