Soon-to-be UFC Hall of Famer Amanda Nunes has announced that she might be making a return to the octagon.
Nunes exited the cage—and the bantamweight title—with a glorious unanimous decision victory over Irene Aldana in 2023. Since then, her spot has been filled by former title contender and old rival Julianna Peña. Although she has yet to announce when she’ll be stepping back into the cage, Nunes revealed she would like to go up against Kayla Harrison when she makes her grand return. For now, that decision will depend on the results of UFC 316, where Julianna Peña is set to defend her title against Harrison.
“It’s different for me to see things from the outside and see my belt there,” said Nunes, referring to Peña’s belt during the UFC 316 press conference in Miami. “It’s like that belt is just fantasy—that the real one is back home with me. Seeing that only motivates me. Let them fight each other, and then I’ll come and take my belt and restore the calm.”
Nunes doesn’t plan on making her comeback a one-time thing—she’s eyeing a full return and intends to stay to defend her title.
“Kayla or Julianna, I want my belt back, and I’ll fight for it,” Nunes said. “I’m driven by challenges. I like to fight for something. Kayla is strong as hell—that’s the one I want. It could be Julianna, cool. I fought her twice, I’ll fight her again. Kayla is strong, she’s coming now and is on a good level, has good judo and great grappling, she’s evolving on the feet—and that’s the one I want. This new thing.”
She explained her reason for retiring and pointed to the tension with Peña and Harrison at the American Top Team gym in Florida as part of the animosity between her and the other female fighters.
“I was bothered by the whole situation, of course,” Nunes told MMA Fighting back in 2022. “There were no girls when I got to American Top Team. I was the first woman to bring two belts and put the women’s team in history. When Kayla got there, and then [Yana Santos], it began creating a weird situation for me because that was my territory. And then Kayla started talking. I was kind of like, ‘Man, I’m not safe even in my territory.’ I felt cornered, even because we shared the same coaches. She trains with Mike Brown, and I train with Mike Brown. I was already training with them when she got there.”
“We didn’t have a partnership in the gym,” Nunes said. “There was no such thing, but we did some training here and there. I was out of shape, I was always traveling, coming back and doing some training. It wasn’t like we were always training [together] or I was in shape and training with Kayla. Never like that. It was always something random—but that’s it. I’m ready for anyone. I mean it.”
“The Lioness” first won UFC gold in July 2016, stopping Miesha Tate at UFC 200. She went on to defend the belt three times against Ronda Rousey, Valentina Shevchenko, and Raquel Pennington before moving up to featherweight for a historic knockout over Cris Cyborg. In total, Nunes went 11-1 in title bouts over a span of seven years, avenging her sole loss to Peña.
