‘For anyone who’s felt hopeless’ – Harrison wins UFC title

Kayla Harrison put in a dominant performance as she submitted Julianna Pena to win the bantamweight title at UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey.

Harrison out-grappled fellow American Pena and controlled the action throughout before finishing the fight with a kimura at the end of the second round.

Victory adds a first UFC championship to her two Olympic judo gold medals and PFL world titles.

In her post-fight interview, Harrison said she almost quit on Thursday after struggling during her weight cut.

The 34-year-old’s two PFL titles, in 2021 and 2022, were won at 155lb (11st 1lb) but she has fought at 135lb (9st 9lb) since joining the UFC last year.

“This is for anyone who’s ever felt hopeless, who’s wanted to quit, who’s wanted to give up. On Thursday I wanted to quit, I wanted to give up,” said Harrison.

After the bout Harrison faced-off with former double champion Amanda Nunes, who confirmed she would be coming out of retirement to challenge for the belt.

The 37-year-old Brazilian, who retired in 2023, is a former training partner of Harrison and is widely considered the greatest women’s mixed martial artist of all time.

She is the only woman to become a two-division UFC champion and exited the sport with 23 wins from 28 bouts.

UFC commentator Joe Rogan described a potential match-up with Harrison as “the biggest women’s title bout in UFC history”.

Harrison said before the bout she was ready to become the “face of women’s MMA” and came into the bout with Pena as a big favourite with oddsmakers.

Pena, meanwhile, was making the first defence of her second bantamweight title after beating Raquel Pennington by split decision in October.

Harrison’s world-class judo background has been the foundation to her success since transitioning to MMA in 2018 and it was on display as she took Pena down in both rounds.

Harrison controlled the action on the ground in the latter half of the first, Pena being deducted a point for two illegal up-kicks, before securing another takedown in the second.

Following victory, Harrison dropped to her knees in tears in the centre of the octagon before sharing a prayer with Pena and paying tribute to single mothers.

In 2020, Harrison adopted her niece and nephew when her stepdad, who was looking after the children at the time, died suddenly.

“This is for my family, my two beautiful children I love you unconditionally,” said Harrison.

In the main event, Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili submitted American Sean O’Malley in the third round to retain his bantamweight title.

Dvalishvili beat O’Malley for the belt last year with a typically relentless display of grappling and mirrored the performance in the rematch.

Although O’Malley defended well in the second round, he was taken down early in the third and Dvalishvili never looked back, controlling the action on the ground before securing a north-south choke.

Victory was Dvalishvili’s second defence of his belt and extended his winning streak to 13, the second-longest in the UFC among active fighters.

Russia’s Islam Makhachev holds the longest with 15.

“I’m on top of the world. I came from nothing, I’m so grateful to inspire so many generations. It doesn’t matter what you have if you know where you’re going and you have a goal,” said Dvalishvili.

On the undercard, former Bellator bantamweight champion Patchy Mix suffered a unanimous decision defeat on his UFC debut by fellow American Mario Bautista.