UFC 324: Gaethje vs. Pimblett will be the first UFC broadcast under the new media rights agreement with Paramount and two title fights headlined the event. In the featured bout, Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett will fight for the interim lightweight championship.
The co-main event features a women’s bantamweight title fight between champion Kayla Harrison and former two-division titleholder Amanda Nunes. UFC CEO Dana White announced the matches during Thursday’s CBS broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys vs. Kansas City Chiefs NFL game.
Harrison (19-1) won the women’s 135-pound championship by submitting Julianna Peña at UFC 316 last June. The bout with Nunes will be Harrison first title defense, but she’s been calling out Nunes since her octagon debut at UFC 300.
“I’m going to draw back the GOAT and then I will be the GOAT,” she said in her octagon interview after defeating Holly Holm.
Nunes (23-5) is widely considered the greatest female fighter to grace the octagon. She held the bantamweight and featherweight titles simultaneously. “The Lioness” holds wins over former champions: Julianna Peña, Holly Holm, Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Cris Cyborg, Valentina Shevchenko, and Germaine de Randamie.
Nunes hasn’t fought since June 2023. Following her UFC 289 win over Irene Aldana, Nunes announced her retirement. Leading up to the Harrison and Pena fight at UFC 316, Nunes announced that she’d be coming out of retirement to face the winner.