UFC 334: Gane to defend heavyweight title against Hokit in New York
Ciryl Gane will make the first defence of his heavyweight title against Josh Hokit at UFC 334 in New York on Saturday, with Amanda Nunes returning to face Kayla Harrison in the co-main event. The event takes place at Madison Square Garden and also features Britain's Chris Duncan in action.
Gane was promoted to undisputed champion in September after Britain's Tom Aspinall vacated the belt because of complications in recovering from an eye injury. The Nunes–Harrison bantamweight title fight was originally scheduled for January but was postponed when Harrison suffered a neck injury. The Scottish fighter Chris Duncan, described in the source as a 33-year-old Scotsman, is set to fight American lightweight Drew Dober in a bout noted as being on the prelims.
The main card at UFC 334 includes the following matchups: Ciryl Gane v Josh Hokit (UFC world heavyweight title), Kayla Harrison v Amanda Nunes (UFC women's bantamweight world title), Caio Borralho v Yousri Belgaroui (middleweight), Uros Medic v Kevin Holland (welterweight), Bilal Hasan v Luis Gurule (flyweight), Stephen Thompson v Charles Radtke (welterweight), Drew Dober v Chris Duncan (lightweight), Jim Miller v Terrance McKinney (lightweight), and Donte Johnson v Cesar Almeida (middleweight).
Gane earned the interim heavyweight title by defeating Alex Pereira at the UFC's White House event in June, in a bout arranged while Tom Aspinall was unable to compete after suffering an eye injury against Gane in October 2025 that was ruled a no-contest. The UFC had planned a rematch between Aspinall and Gane for the undisputed title but Aspinall vacated the belt, leading to Gane's upgrade from interim to undisputed champion. The 36-year-old Gane had previously lost title fights to Francis Ngannou in 2022 and Jon Jones in 2023, debuted in 2018, has won 14 of his 17 fights and has secured seven knockouts.
Josh Hokit enters the title fight ranked fifth in the UFC heavyweight rankings and is contesting for the belt after one year in the organisation; he debuted in the UFC last November and has won all four fights since, with his most recent win coming against Derrick Lewis in June. The source also records that Hokit, a former NFL player, has been unbeaten since his MMA debut in 2023, winning all 10 fights with six of those wins via knockout. Hokit is noted for adopting controversial personas and characters in interviews to attract attention, and was accused of overstepping into discrimination after making racially aggravating and misogynistic comments in his post UFC 324 interview in January. After Hokit directed misogynistic comments towards former First Lady Michelle Obama in June, UFC president Dana White described his words as "gross", "moronic", and "inappropriate". Gane is the pre-fight favourite to beat Hokit and retain his heavyweight title.
The Harrison–Nunes contest is described in the source as being billed by pundits as one of the biggest women's fights in UFC history; the pair are friends and former team-mates at American Top Team before Nunes left the gym in 2022. Amanda Nunes, 38, is characterised in the source as widely regarded as the best women's MMA fighter of all time and is the only woman in history to hold two UFC titles in two weight classes simultaneously; she retired in 2023 after a 15-year career, having won 23 of her 28 fights with 13 wins by knockout. Nunes' last bout before this return was a defence of the UFC bantamweight title against Irene Aldana in 2023, after which she retired and vacated the belt. Kayla Harrison, 36, won the UFC title from Julianna Pena last year and is making the first defence of that belt; she is noted as a former two-time PFL lightweight world champion who claimed gold in the UFC in only her third fight in the promotion, and has won 19 of her 20 fights with her only defeat coming against Larissa Pacheco in 2022. Nunes holds bantamweight records cited in the source for most wins (13), finishes (eight) and longest win streak (nine). Harrison is the pre-fight favourite to beat Nunes and retain her bantamweight title.
Britain's Chris Duncan is specifically identified as a 33-year-old Scotsman scheduled to fight American lightweight Drew Dober; the source indicates that bout appears on the event bill. Other fighters listed on the main card include names such as Caio Borralho, Yousri Belgaroui, Uros Medic, Kevin Holland, Bilal Hasan, Luis Gurule, Stephen Thompson, Charles Radtke, Jim Miller, Terrance McKinney, Donte Johnson and Cesar Almeida.
The prelims are set to start at 00:00 GMT, the main card is expected to begin from 02:00 GMT, and the headline fight between Gane and Hokit is likely to take place at around 04:30 GMT on Sunday.