Amanda Nunes will closely watch Julianna Peña-Kayla Harrison

MIAMI – Former two-division UFC girls’s champion Amanda Nunes on Friday, within the type of an assertive and repeated head nod, stated she’s planning a return from retirement.

Nunes was in a VIP seat at Kaseya Middle for the UFC 314 ceremonial weigh-ins forward of Saturday’s card in Miami. Conveniently for the South Florida resident and ex-champ, the prelude to the weigh-ins was a ticket on-sale information convention for UFC 316 later this yr in New Jersey.

At that occasion, girls’s bantamweight champion Julianna Pena (13-5 MMA, 8-3 UFC) will tackle challenger Kayla Harrison (18-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC), a two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo and a two-time PFL $1 million season winner. Harris is almost a 6-1 betting favourite within the struggle, almost exceptional for a challenger. It will likely be simply her third struggle within the UFC.

Peña beat Nunes to turn out to be champion in an upset in December 2021. She misplaced it in a rematch the following yr. Then, after greater than two years on the sidelines, and after Nunes retired in 2023, Nunes returned and beat Raquel Pennington to win the title again. That struggle was a cut up determination that 96 % of media members tracked by MMA Decisions scored for Pennington.

She has requested for a trilogy struggle with Nunes – and Friday stated Nunes’ return hinges on who wins between her and Harrison on Saturday.

After a heated #UFC316 press convention, Julianna Peña and Kayla Harrison have their first title struggle faceoff. pic.twitter.com/GF4jl9J0gJ

— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) April 11, 2025

However when UFC CEO Dana White was requested if he could be open to Nunes popping out of retirement later this yr to struggle the winner, he didn’t must reply. Nunes was proven on digicam shortly nodding her head that she would unretire to struggle once more.

White just lately stated he thinks Nunes retired too early.

Peña and Harrison struggle June 7 within the UFC 316 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) co-main occasion at Prudential Middle in Newark, N.J.

Nunes retired in mid-2023 not lengthy after she beat Irene Aldana in a bantamweight title struggle. The 135-pound belt was stuffed, however her featherweight title stays in limbo. The UFC has held only a few girls’s fights at 145 kilos, and no plans for a brand new champion ever have been made.

Harrison fought at featherweight within the PFL and solely first made the reduce to bantamweight when she got here to the UFC. If she beats Peña to win the title and Nunes comes out of retirement, she technically nonetheless could be featherweight champ – that means a gathering between the 2 may kick off a prolonged two-division rivalry and reignite issues at girls’s featherweight for the UFC.

For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC 316.