Amanda Nunes to unretire, calls for winner of Peña-Harrison

Amanda Nunes, the most dominant women’s fighter in UFC history, says she is coming out of retirement.

Nunes (23-5) said she intends to fight the winner of Saturday’s 135-pound championship bout between Julianna Peña and Kayla Harrison at UFC 316. The former two-weight UFC champion retired from MMA in June 2023, but has long teased at a potential return. Nunes, 37, will be in attendance at UFC 316 in Newark.

“I missed [fighting] so much,” Nunes said during a fan Q & A on Friday. “My baby is big now. She didn’t sleep much at night [as a baby] and I was concerned about that because we fighters need sleep. But now, my baby is bigger and I’m ready to go. Kayla or Julianna, I’m going to be ready.”

Nunes and her partner, former UFC fighter Nina Ansaroff, have two children, born in 2020 and 2023.

While UFC president Dana White has said in the past that he would love to see Nunes return, the promotion has not commented on whether she would be first in line to face the Pena-Harrison winner next.

“The Lioness” has history with both women in Saturday’s title fight. Peña (11-5) scored one of the biggest upsets in UFC title fight history when she submitted Nunes for the belt in 2021. The UFC booked an immediate rematch and Nunes dominated Peña in a five-round decision. Harrison (18-1) is a former sparring partner and teammate of Nunes at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida.

Nunes was the consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound women’s fighter in the world at the time of her retirement. On Friday, she expressed hope that longtime No. 1 pound-for-pound male fighter Jon Jones would hold off his pending retirement long enough for them to compete on the same card again. They co-headlined cards in 2018 and 2019.

“I would love to fight on the same card [as Jones],” Nunes said. “That would be awesome. I always have good luck when Jon is on the card. I hope he hears that.”