Fighter Profile: Amanda Nunes

Background

Brazilian fighter and UFC Hall of Famer, the first woman to hold two UFC championships simultaneously and widely regarded as the greatest female mixed martial artist in history. She retired after UFC 289 in 2023 and has since returned to challenge for the bantamweight title.

Career timeline

• Held the UFC women’s bantamweight and featherweight championships simultaneously, with wins over Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Holly Holm, Miesha Tate and Valentina Shevchenko.
• Retired as champion following UFC 289 in June 2023.
• Came out of retirement after UFC 316 in June 2025, entering the Octagon immediately after Kayla Harrison’s title win to call her out.
• A title fight with Harrison was booked for UFC 324 on 24 January 2026 but was postponed when Harrison required neck surgery. The UFC has said it intends to rebook the bout later in 2026.

Fight craft

Nunes combined the heaviest hands in the history of women’s MMA with a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and a clinch game that let her dictate where fights happened. Her early-career weakness — a tendency to fade if she could not get an early finish — was largely coached out by the second half of her career. The genuine unknown now is time away: she last competed in June 2023, and a return at 37 against a physically imposing Olympic judoka is a demanding way to restart.

In the modern MMA landscape

Our wider MMA analysis refers to the Harrison bout as “cancelled”. It was postponed after Harrison’s neck surgery rather than scrapped, and Nunes’s return remains live as of 1 August 2026 — which makes it one of the more significant unresolved storylines in the women’s divisions.

Return to What the Modern MMA Game Demands.

Sources

• MMA Mania — Neck injury and surgery cancels Harrison vs Nunes at UFC 324
• CBS Sports — UFC 324 fight card: Harrison vs Nunes postponed due to injury
• MMA Mania — UFC 316 results: Nunes calls out Harrison

Record and competitive status checked 1 August 2026.