Kayla Harrison Submits Amanda Nunes in Round 4 to Retain UFC Title at MSG
Kayla Harrison retained her UFC women’s bantamweight title on Saturday night, submitting Amanda Nunes with a rear-naked choke at 1:29 of the fourth round in the co-main event of UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The finish settled one of the most anticipated women’s fights in UFC history and spoiled Nunes’s comeback after more than three years away from the sport. Harrison, the champion, improved to 20-1, while Nunes, the former two-division champion, fell to 23-6. Reuters reported that Harrison used her grappling to secure the fourth-round submission win and keep the belt she won last year.
Nunes struck first — then Harrison took over
Nunes, 38, looked sharp early. She seized the advantage in the stand-up exchanges, landing clean shots and briefly troubling the champion in the opening rounds. Harrison, though, found her rhythm on the canvas, landing takedowns in each of the first two rounds to turn the tide.
By the end of the third round, the momentum had swung firmly behind Harrison. MMA Fighting scored the fight 29-28 in her favour heading into the final frame, a reflection of how her grappling had begun to wear Nunes down after the Brazilian’s bright start.
The finish came in a flash
The end arrived suddenly. Early in the fourth round, Nunes landed a left hook in the clinch, but Harrison caught a front kick, dragged her opponent to the mat and immediately took her back. The rear-naked choke was sunk in before Nunes could escape, and the tap followed at 1:29 of the round.
It was a champion’s finish — patient through three rounds of hard fighting, then ruthless the moment the opening appeared. The Madison Square Garden crowd, which had roared for Nunes’s early success, rose to salute Harrison as the referee stepped in.
A long road back for both women
The bout, staged under UFC president Dana White, was the biggest women’s fight the promotion has put together in years, and it had been a long time coming. The two were originally scheduled to meet at UFC 324 in January, but the fight was postponed when Harrison suffered a neck injury. She underwent surgery and had not fought for 17 months before Saturday night.
theScore noted that Harrison was fighting for the first time in 17 months and defending the 135-pound title for the first time since she captured it with a second-round submission of Julianna Pena at UFC 316 in June 2025.
For Nunes, the night marked the end of a retirement that began in June 2023, when she walked away from the sport as the reigning bantamweight champion. A former featherweight champion as well, she is widely considered the greatest fighter in women’s mixed martial arts history, and her return — chasing a third reign as bantamweight champion — gave the fight its sense of occasion. In the end, the three-and-a-half-year layoff told against her once Harrison imposed her grappling game.
Gane keeps heavyweight gold in the main event
In the main event, Ciryl Gane retained the heavyweight title with a unanimous decision win over Josh Hokit. All three judges scored the five-round contest 48-47 in favour of the Frenchman after a bruising, fast-paced battle. The defeat was the first of Hokit’s professional career.
The result keeps Gane at the top of the heavyweight division and sets up another major title fight for the French champion, who survived a genuine test from the previously unbeaten American challenger.
What comes next
Harrison did not announce a retirement decision in her post-fight remarks, saying instead that she has decisions to make about her future and needs time to recover from her injuries. At 35, and now with a first successful title defence behind her, she remains the central figure in the women’s bantamweight division — but she gave no indication of when, or against whom, she will fight next.
Nunes, meanwhile, must decide whether Saturday’s defeat closes the book on her comeback or whether one of the sport’s greats will try again. She returned to chase history; she leaves New York with her legacy intact but the title still in Harrison’s hands.
The fight capped a packed weekend of American sport that also featured Texas’s last-second win over LSU in college football and Ilia Malinin’s fourth Skate America title.
