Kayla Harrison submitted Amanda Nunes with a rear-naked choke at 1:29 of the fourth round at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, November 14, to retain the UFC women’s bantamweight title in the co-main event of UFC 334. FINAL: Harrison def. Nunes by submission (rear-naked choke), 1:29 of Round 4.
Event: UFC 334, Saturday, November 14 at Madison Square Garden, New York
Result: Kayla Harrison def. Amanda Nunes, submission (rear-naked choke), 1:29, Round 4
Stream: Paramount+
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Kayla Harrison vs Amanda Nunes: The Grappling Took Over
Nunes started the way her supporters hoped the comeback would look. Fighting for the first time in three and a half years, the 38-year-old Brazilian looked crisp in the stand-up exchanges and stunned Harrison twice with right hooks in the opening round. But the fight kept ending up where Harrison wanted it. The two-time Olympic judo champion landed takedowns in each of the first two rounds, and Nunes finished both rounds flat on her back, pinned in a scarf hold she could not escape.
The numbers told the same story as the pictures. Harrison completed three of nine takedown attempts and turned them into more than five minutes of control time, trapping Nunes on the ground late in the first round and again in the second while she worked over her face with elbows and short punches. Nunes, puzzlingly, tried to wrestle back: she scored two takedowns of her own and wound up on the bottom both times. Against a judoka of Harrison’s level, every grappling exchange was a withdrawal from the same account, and by the end of the second round the challenger was spending her energy on survival.
The Finish In Round Four
Nunes opened the fourth with a left hook in the clinch, but the end came seconds later. Harrison caught a kick, tripped Nunes to the canvas, jumped straight onto her back and sank in the rear-naked choke. Nunes tapped almost immediately. The UFC’s official scorecards page records the result as a submission at 1:29 of Round 4, and the promotion’s own broadcast account posted the moment as it happened:
“I think I’m still in shock,” Harrison said afterwards. “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 champion needed help getting back to the locker room, weakened as much by the weight cut as by the fight itself. Nunes walked out of the Octagon on her own.
Two Comebacks Met In The Middle
Both women arrived at this fight off a long road back. Harrison won the title in June 2025 by submitting Julianna Pena, then did not fight again for 17 months. This defence was first scheduled for January, until Harrison withdrew and had surgery on herniated discs in her neck. Saturday was her first title defence, in her first fight since the surgery, against the most decorated opponent available.
Nunes was the reason the fight carried that weight. She won the bantamweight title in 2016, added the featherweight belt in 2018, beat the once-indomitable Ronda Rousey, and lost only once in 12 previous UFC championship bouts. She retired in June 2023 as the reigning bantamweight champion, citing burnout and time with her family, and was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2025. The comeback lasted three and a half years of absence and ended in four rounds, and the two made the fight official at Friday’s UFC 334 weigh-ins, both on the championship limit of 135 pounds.
Harrison was honest that the 135-pound cut remains her hardest opponent. “I’ve got a lot of decisions to make when I get home,” she said. “Every time I make weight, I say never again, so we’ll see.”
What The Win Leaves Behind
The result moves Harrison to 20-1 overall and 4-0 in the UFC, and drops Nunes to 23-6. It also earned Harrison a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus, one of four $100,000 bonuses the UFC handed out after the card. In the main event, Ciryl Gane retained the heavyweight championship with a unanimous decision over Josh Hokit, 48-47 on all three scorecards, on a night that marked ten years since the UFC’s first card at Madison Square Garden.
At the post-fight press conference, Harrison said she might have broken her foot in the win, and she kept her options open about what comes next, telling reporters she would take time with her team and her family before deciding. Asked whether anything beyond a Nunes rematch appealed to her, she named the other great judoka of the women’s game: “If Ronda wants to come get some, it’d be fun. Free money.”
For Nunes, the night answered the comeback question without touching the legacy. She may still be considered the best the sport has produced; Harrison staked her claim as the best of right now, and she did it by beating the standard herself, in the building where championship fights at the Garden have become a career goal for a generation of fighters. Whether Nunes heads back into retirement or not, she leaves this fight the way she entered it, on the short list of the greatest to ever do it. The belt, and the division, belong to Harrison now.
References
UFC.com, “Polymarket UFC 334 Official Scorecards,” November 15, 2026. Reuters, “Harrison submits Nunes to retain women’s UFC bantamweight belt,” November 15, 2026. The Associated Press via Sportsnet, “Harrison taps out Nunes to retain title in co-main event of UFC 334,” November 15, 2026. theScore, “Harrison submits Nunes in Round 4 to retain UFC women’s bantamweight title,” November 15, 2026. Sherdog, “Ciryl Gane edges Josh Hokit, Kayla Harrison submits Amanda Nunes at UFC 334,” November 15, 2026.
