Kayla Harrison looked like she was ready to call it a night. She looked exhausted.
Then out of absolutely nowhere, the fight was over.
Harrison caught a Nunes kick, threw her a little off balance, ran to take her back, sank in a rear-naked choke – and forced the former two-division champion and consensus women’s MMA GOAT to tap. Kayla Harrison (20-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) retained the women’s bantamweight title against Nunes (23-6 MMA, 16-3 UFC), who returned from a 3.5-year retirement to challenge for the belt.
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Harrison’s finish came at the 1:29 mark of the fourth round. The fight was her first attempted title defense and came after a layoff of nearly 18 months thanks to neck surgery and recovery.
Nunes caught the champ a couple times 100 seconds into the fight, then again seconds later. When Harrison clinched up, Nunes defended and drilled her a couple more times. Just short of two minutes in, Harrison again tried to tie her up and paid the price.
When they separated, Nunes backed her up quickly and continued to throw big punches with confidence. Harrison threatened with a takedown halfway through the round, but Nunes defended and got back to the middle and again came forward with hard pressure.
Harrison clipped Nunes with a left hand, then threw her to the canvas after Nunes tried to move around to her back. Nunes expertly reversed it and rolled out, but Harrison quickly re ersed again and tied up Nunes’ right arm and landed short punches to the head. Harrison kept a headlock, then worked for an Americana. Nunes survived to see the second round, but it was a massive change of momentum.
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In the second, Nunes initiated the wrestling with Harrison and found herself tied up. The former champ landed a few knees in the position, but ultimately got a takedown midway through the second – the first time Harrison had been taken down in the UFC. But with two minutes left, Harrison did the same as the first and landed a takedown that had her on top in side control working short ground-and-pound and looking for choke opportunities.
In the third, Harrison initiated a clinch, but Nunes didn’t labor over a takedown attempt – heeding the warnings from her corner. But not long after that, Nunes caught Harrison off balance and used it for a takedown along the fence. Harrison looked tired, and had a blatant fence grab that helped her out that wasn’t penalized. The fight went back to the feet midway through, but Nunes wound up on top when the fight spilled back down. She took Harrison’s back and worked for a rear-naked choke, but was too high and Harrison worked her way to the top. With a minute left in the round, Harrison reeled back and landed a right elbow that cut Nunes open, and she landed another big punch with 15 seconds left and finished the round on top.
But in the fourth everything turned, and Nunes tapped for just the second time in her career.
Up-to-the-minute UFC 334 results:
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Kayla Harrison def. Amanda Nunes via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 4, 1:29
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Kayla Harrison submits Amanda Nunes, lays claim to GOAT status at UFC 334
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
