Amanda Nunes emerges from UFC retirement to challenge ex-teammate Kayla Harrison

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Nunes, one of four dual-weight champions in UFC history, retired in 2023

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Amanda Nunes will emerge from retirement to challenge Kayla Harrison for the UFC women’s bantamweight title, it has been announced.

On 24 January, in the co-main event of UFC 324, Nunes will take on her former teammate while fighting for the first time since 2023.

In June of that year, Nunes retired from mixed martial arts after retaining the UFC women’s bantamweight belt against Irene Aldana. Raquel Pennington won the vacant title in January 2024 and lost it to Julianna Pena nine months later, before Harrison dethroned Pena this June.

And Harrison, 35, will make her first defence of the title in January, as the former two-time Olympic gold-medalist judoka faces Nunes, 37.

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Harrison debuted in the UFC in April 2024, following two reigns as PFL lightweight champion. The American, who has lost just once in MMA, is 3-0 in the UFC courtesy of her wins over Ketlen Vieira and ex-champions Pena and Holly Holm.

Pena and Holm are both former opponents of Nunes, who stopped Holm in 2019 and outpointed Pena in 2023 – having suffered an all-time upset by Pena in 2022, when Pena won by submission.

Nunes’s shock loss to Pena brought an end to the Brazilian’s first reign as bantamweight champion, a run that lasted six years. During that reign, Nunes also picked up the women’s featherweight title. That triumph at 145lb made her one of just four dual-weight champions in UFC history, alongside Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier and Henry Cejudo.

Nunes holds 10 victories over eight UFC champions, including incumbent flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko, Ronda Rousey, and Cris Cyborg.

In the main event of UFC 324, which takes place in Las Vegas, Paddy Pimblett will fight Justin Gaethje for the interim lightweight title, while various former champions are in action alongside Nunes – including Sean O’Malley, Deiveson Figueiredo, Alexa Grasso and Rose Namajunas.

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