The most successful female fighter in the history of mixed martial arts, Amanda Nunes, is set to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame later this year.
Former two-division UFC champion Nunes (23-5 MMA, 16-2 UFC) was completely surprised by the announcement, which came during the broadcast of Saturday's UFC 314 event at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.
“The Lioness” will be inducted as part of the 2025 Hall of Fame class on June 28 in Las Vegas.
Nunes competed inside the Octagon from 2013 to 2023. During her tenure, she captured both the bantamweight and featherweight titles, reigning supreme over both divisions simultaneously.
She fought in a record twelve consecutive title fights before announcing her retirement following a dominant win over Irene Aldana in June 2023.
Nunes first claimed the bantamweight title in 2016, submitting Miesha Tate in the opening round of their clash at UFC 200. She then went on to knock out women’s MMA trailblazer Ronda Rousey in under a minute later that year.
After successfully defending her belt against Valentina Shevchenko and Raquel Pennington, Nunes moved up to challenge then-featherweight champion Cris Cyborg at UFC 232.
A quickfire knockout victory made Nunes the first female two-division champion in UFC history. She suffered only one more loss in her career—to Julianna Peña in 2021—but avenged that defeat six months later.
Peña (11-5 MMA, 8-3 UFC), who now holds the bantamweight title Nunes vacated upon retiring, is set to face Nunes’ former training partner Kayla Harrison (18-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in the co-main event at UFC 316 on June 7. Speculation has been growing that Nunes might be tempted to return to the Octagon in the near future.
UFC President Dana White was asked at Friday’s UFC 314 ceremonial weigh-ins whether he’d be open to Nunes coming out of retirement to face the winner of that bout later this year. As the camera cut to Nunes, seated in the VIP section, she nodded in agreement.
White has often said he believed Nunes retired too early, and her potential return could inject some much-needed excitement into the UFC’s 135-pound division.
