Last night (Sat., Nov. 14, 2026), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ventured forth to Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York for UFC 334. Twin title fights topped the promotion’s return to MSG, making for an exciting and high-profile night of action. In the main event, Ciryl Gane aimed for the first defense of his newly-minted Heavyweight crown opposite divisional upstart Josh Hokit. In addition, Amanda Nunes returned after nearly three years on the sidelines in an attempt to recapture
her Bantamweight crown from Judo Olympian Kayla Harrison.
The rest of the card was stacked with fun matchups and interesting talent, so let’s get right to the best performances and highlight finishes of the evening:
A Record-Setting Heavyweight War
Ciryl Gane vs. Josh Hokit was an outstanding scrap, the best Heavyweight fight in quite some time.
Gane started strong. Hokit wrestled right away and surged forward relentlessly, forcing Gane onto the back foot immediately. From his bike, Gane was nevertheless able to snap Hokit’s chin back repeatedly. It didn’t deter Hokit and his fastball of a right hand, but those jabs were the most significant punches of the opening frame. In addition, Gane did well to start punching the body early in the fight.
Gane was operating without kicks, however, in fear of the takedown, and he was sprinting all over the cage. As a result, he started breathing more heavily in the second, and Hokit was able to close the gap more often. By the third, Hokit was dictating the pace and landing the better shots. Not only did he connect with the right hand, but he started stomping on Gane’s foot like he was trying to put out a fire, and he also scored some knifing elbows from the clinch.
In round four, Gane made a decision that changed the entire fight. After running around for 15 straight minutes, Gane began to stand his ground and put more weight into his strikes. In addition, Gane had avoided throwing kicks and knees for much of the fight in fear of the takedown. Since Hokit hadn’t managed to do much with his wrestling in the first three rounds, Gane was able to more effectively open up with his other weapons and take that risk.
A ripping left kick to the body opened the fourth, and I would have loved to see more of them. Instead, Gane found his best success of the fight with hard knees to the body. Sitting down on his shots produced more clinches in the open, and Gane used those clinches to frame and create distance for knees to the mid-section. Hokit may have kept his poker face through all those jabs early, but he couldn’t hide his reaction to the knees. His volume dropped off significantly, allowing Gane to retake control and actually finish the fifth round by pressing the action.
In the face of Hokit’s pressure, the champion was forced to walk a delicate tightrope and ultimately made the right decisions in time to walk away with the belt.
As for Hokit, there are two takeaways that feel almost contradicting. On the negative side, his game was incredibly limited. Failing to build off the right hand threat or do anything significant with his takedowns cost him badly. If he could have strung together more punches, chopped some low kicks, or used his hands to deflect jabs at all, perhaps he wins this fight! His inexperience was glaringly obvious at times.
Yet, it’s hard not to be impressed by Hokit. I walk away quite convinced he’ll win a title at some point. He already has so many of the skills that make up a champion, and just a little refinement would go an incredibly long way. If Hokit can just add a couple more weapons before he takes serious damage, a title reign feels imminent.
It’s nice to be positive about a Heavyweight fight for a change.
Nunes Plays With Fire, Gets Burned
I found Nunes vs. Harrison to be extremely irritating.
Nunes’ decision-making was unbelievably awful. She was clearly winning on the feet with zero fear of the return fire. Time and time again, Nunes showed excellent anti-Judo tactics by framing the hips and inserting her forehead into Harrison’s jaw. Harrison couldn’t get her hips close, and thus she couldn’t wrestle. All of her typical throws and trips were shut down … at least until Nunes started trying to wrestle herself rather than disengage!
For three straight rounds, Nunes was punished for her insistence on offensively wrestling and hanging around in the clinch. Yet, she never learned her lesson. It was genuinely baffling to watch Nunes get reversed and punched in the face and then do it all over again! The only possible explanation that comes to mind is perhaps Nunes submitted Harrison often in the gym years ago, motivating her to take the fight to the canvas.
Aside from the abysmal Fight IQ? Nunes looked fresh. She would lose a round (because of her own bad decisions) and then smile her way to her corner, whereas Harrison was huffing and puffing between rounds. Harrison deserves props for pulling off the sudden rear naked choke in a well-executed sequence — it was clearly part of the American Top Team game plan to parry Nunes’ front kick and wrestle off that entrance — but she was a step behind for large portions of the fight. I certainly don’t walk away from this fight thinking that Harrison is outright better than Nunes, whose prime was more than half-a-decade ago.
Underperformance is especially disappointing in a collision of champions.
They Robbed Kevin Holland
Ahead of Kevin Holland vs. Uros Medic, I wrote that there were two likely outcomes. On one hand, Medic could win via quick KO, because that’s the way he wins fights. Conversely, Holland is impossible to KO, and Medic typically implodes when unable to find the early stoppage. Something had to give, and my final call was Holland via club-and-sub. Alas, I forgot the secret third option, ever-present in every “Trailblazer” fight.
A weird decision where nothing really happens for long stretches of time.
I was on the money early. Medic surged forward, punched a brick wall, and then was hurt in return by Holland’s sneaky power and lanky uppercuts. Holland nearly locked up a d’arce choke to secure the first-round finish, but Medic showed unexpected composure and ground skills to avoid tapping out.
Then … it all fell apart. Medic kicked Holland low twice, costing himself a point. Holland thoroughly outpointed Medic in the second but failed to push his advantage much. Holland completely took the third round off and took some baseball bats to the face in the process, but that legendary chin held up.
It should’ve been a clear 29-27 decision for “Big Mouth.” Instead, the utterly incompetent officiants scored the bout a draw, and Holland loses out on his deserved climb a few rungs up the Welterweight ladder.
Wonderboy’s Storybook Retirement
43-year-old Stephen Thompson couldn’t have scripted his final UFC moments any better.
Charles Radtke opened the fight with pressure, putting together combinations and takedown attempts. The former mostly missed, but he found early success with his double leg shot along the fence. He was able to drag “Wonderboy” to the floor multiple times, but that was the extent of his grappling success. He couldn’t establish a dominant position or truly control Thompson.
Wrestling without control isn’t sustainable. Radtke began to fatigue, allowing Thompson the opportunity to show off his masterful kickboxing. Before too long, Thompson was popping his opponent with jabs and establishing his distance with kicks. Midway through the second, Thompson was fully sitting down on punches and trying to hurt Radtke with little fear of the takedown. A toe stab to the liver late in the round hurt Radtke, fully shifting the momentum to the veteran’s corner.
Radtke tried to push back in the third, but he was getting touched up. Thompson cracked him with a hook kick to the face right away! A couple minutes later, “Wonderboy” spun into a wheel kick that knocked Radtke out through his gloves, which is pretty much the perfect ending for the career of a legendary karateka.
Stephen Thompson is often forgotten in the conversation of best fighters to never win gold — he shouldn’t be. At his peak, he demolished Johnny Hendricks in less than four minutes when “Big Rigg” was also still at his best. He picked apart a prime Rory MacDonald for five rounds, and a majority of viewers and media outlets scored the Tyron Woodley title rematch for the striker.
Between his incredible class and elite performances, Thompson stands alongside Lyoto Machida as the representative of Karate in MMA.
Bantamweight’s Uncertain Future
Is women’s Bantamweight coming to an end? Title fight atop the card aside, I don’t think most fans would be upset. Neither Nunes nor Harrison intend on fighting that many more times at 135 pounds. Most of the WBW bouts are not that fun to watch, and there isn’t much talent coming up the pipe.
Bia Mesquita is an obvious exception. The jiu-jitsu black belt and IBJJF Hall of Famer has won four UFC bouts in the last 13 months, sprinting up the ranks and stopping every opponent in the process. She steamrolled Macy Chiasson last night, taking her down easily, landing some brutal elbows, and then wrapping up a rear naked choke in the opening round.
She could fight for gold within the next 12 months … if the division is still around by then.
Additional Thoughts
- Terrance McKinney defeats Jim Miller via first-round knockout (highlights): The “T-Wrecks” gimmick is well-established at this point. He goes hard for about three minutes in pursuit of the KO or rear naked choke, and if it doesn’t work out, a collapse is imminent. Miller was actually landing some decent shots from his back foot, but the early speed and power of McKinney proved too much when a crisp left hand found the mark and knocked him senseless. It would be a quality victory for McKinney if not for the significant weight miss. Perhaps his forthcoming move to Welterweight will allow him to fight harder for longer?
- Cesar Almeida defeats Donte Johnson via first-round knockout (highlights): Just because Damian Pinas knocked out Almeida doesn’t mean everybody can do it. Johnson is a great athlete with a decent mix of skills, but he was way too confident tackling Almeida on the feet. Let me remind those who have forgotten: Almeida has 60 professional kickboxing matches! He fought Alex Pereira three times and beat him once! This is not an easy man to defeat on the feet even at 38 years of age, and Johnson found out the hard way. Johnson started strong and found the mark first with his fast hands, but Almeida was able to patiently find his foe’s timing then start cracking him with intercepting right hands repeatedly en route to the KO.
