The UFC has been rolling out blockbuster fights like nobody’s business over the past week, and they’ve just added another to the list.
On Monday, per emerging MMA source Léo Guimaraes, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Julianna Pena will defend her title against Kayla Harrison on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Tapology has also added the fight to their in-progress lineup for UFC 316. So far, it’s the only fight attached to the card. Pena regained the title when she took a split decision from Raquel Pennington in October 2024 at UFC 307.
On the same card, Harrison defeated Ketlen Vieira to position herself for the title opportunity. Most people probably didn’t expect it to take nine months to come to fruition, but as it is, that’s the case.
Harrison has a chance to make some history. If she defeats Pena, Harrison will become the first woman to win a Professional Fighters League and UFC world championship. Harrison would be the second fighter ever, as Francis Ngannou managed the feat in October 2024 when he won the PFL SuperFights title by scoring a TKO victory over Renan Fereira.
Pena, 35, has said she isn’t long for this game. Her ideal plan would be to face Harrison and beat her, and then to lure Amanda Nunes out of retirement for a trilogy fight with the MMA icon.
Pena dethroned Nunes via second-round submission in December 2021 with one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. However, Nunes evened the score with a dominant unanimous decision victory in the rematch in July 2022.
Nunes went on to successfully defend her title once more in June 2023 when she scored a unanimous decision win over Irene Aldana. Nunes retired from the sport, leaving her gloves as well as her UFC women’s bantamweight and featherweight crowns in the Octagon.
Since then, Nunes has dropped a few teases about a comeback, and it seems like a strong possibility–no matter who wins the Pena-Harrison fight. No matter what else is added to the UFC 316 card, the Pena-Harrison fight is a good one.
It does seem as though the UFC would look to add another title fight to the card as the main event. That would be an excellent spot for Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall for the undisputed heavyweight title.
Because International Fight Week is three weeks later, the UFC will want to save some strong bouts for that card. We’ll likely find out over the next month which fights will be joining Pena-Harrison on the card.
What’s Next For the UFC?
On Saturday, March 1, the UFC is back in Las Vegas for UFC Vegas 103. Here’s a look at the complete card.
- Manel Kape vs. Asu Almabayev – Flyweight
- Cody Brundage vs. Julian Marquez – Middleweight
- Nasrat Haqparast vs. Esteban Ribovics – Lightweight
- Austen Lane vs. Mario Pinto – Heavyweight
- William Gomis vs. Hyder Amil – Featherweight
- Danny Barlow vs. Sam Patterson – Welterweight
- Ricardo Ramos vs. Chepe Mariscal – Featherweight
- Douglas Silva de Andrade vs. John Castañeda – Bantamweight
- Andrea Lee vs. JJ Aldrich – Flyweight
- Lucas Almeida vs. Danny Silva – Featherweight
- Montana De La Rosa vs. Luana Carolina – Flyweight
- Charles Johnson vs. Ramazan Temirov – Flyweight
