The UFC’s first card of 2026 has suffered a significant setback.
Reigning women’s bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison is out of her anticipated UFC 324 co-main event matchup with Amanda Nunes due to injury, forcing a postponement, the UFC announced.
The promotion did not disclose details of the injury, but reports from Brazilian combat sports reporter Leo Walker Guimaraes and Bill Burt of The Eagle-Tribune, among others, said that Harrison sustained a neck injury in the lead-up to the Jan. 24 event.
No replacement was announced, and the 135-pound championship matchup is expected to be rebooked later this year. In the meantime, the new co-main event will feature former bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley and top contender Song Yadong.
Nunes is considered the greatest women’s fighter in UFC history, but hasn’t fought in 2.5 years since announcing her retirement following a UFC 289 title defence against Irene Aldana.
Harrison became the 135-pound champion at UFC 316 in June when she submitted Julianna Pena to become the new champion, after which she challenged Nunes who was watching from cageside.
The Brazilian legend was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame this past summer but also announced that she was planning a return to the cage and was preparing to face the winner of Harrison vs. Pena.
The pair previously trained together at American Top Team in Florida when Harrison first began MMA before Nunes eventually left the gym.
“I feel like we knew this was gonna happen. … I know you were preparing to (fight me) and now we’re gonna do it,” Nunes said to Harrison at UFC 316.
Harrison vs. Nunes was set to be the second women’s superfight within just a few months after flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko recently defeated longtime strawweight champion Zhang Weili at UFC 322 as Zhang attempted to join Nunes as the only two-weight women’s champion in UFC history.
Nunes went 16-2 in the UFC from 2013 to 2023 during which she set multiple records, including having the longest winning streak in UFC women's history (12), accumulating the most finishes in UFC women's history (10), and becoming first woman to become a two-division champion. Nunes was the reigning 135-pound champion when she knocked out Cris Cyborg in 2018 to become the 145-pound champ.
The 37-year-old also holds notable wins over former UFC champions Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, Raquel Pennington, Germaine De Randamie, Julianna Pena, and holds a pair of close decision wins over Schevchenko before Schevchenko moved down to her natural weight class at 125 pounds.
Harrison is a two-time Olympic gold medallist in judo and joined Henry Cejudo the only other Olympic champion, to go on to also win a UFC title.
Following her incredible judo career, Harrison transitioned to MMA and thrived. She had her first pro MMA bout in 2018 and has since amassed a 19-1 record in the sport. Before joining the UFC in 2024, Harrison was a champion in the Professional Fighters League, primarily competing in the 155-pound division. Her lone loss was a five-round decision in 2022 to Larissa Pacheco, a fighter Harrison had previously beaten twice.
The 35-year-old American defeated Holly Holm and Ketlen Vieira in 2024 in her first two UFC appearances to earn her title shot.
UFC 324, which takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, is scheduled to be headlined by an interim lightweight title fight between Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett.
--with files from Sportsnet's Mike Johnston
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