The first UFC event of the year has suffered a major blow with the news that Kayla Harrison is out of her bantamweight title defense against Amanda Nunes at UFC 324 in Las Vegas on January 24th due to a neck injury.

Unfortunately the 35-year-old Harrison is suffering from herniated discs in her neck and so will have to undergo surgery, leading to the title showdown with Nunes being postponed until a later date.

It’s bad news for the UFC brass, who had been eager to deliver a stacked card for their first ever event on Paramount+ next weekend, with Harrison vs. Nunes being an important component of that in the co-main event leading into the interim lightweight title fight between Justin Gaethje and Paddy PImblett.

Harrison vs. Nunes had been billed as the biggest fight in female MMA history, and the two fighters certainly have the credentials to back that up.

Harrison is a former two-time Olympic judo gold medalist, two-time PFL tournament champion and current UFC bantamweight champ with a 19-1 career record, while the 37-year-old Nunes is widely considered to be the female G.O.A.T. after dominating at both bantamweight and featherweight during her long two-division title reign before vacating the belts and retiring in 2023.

With this fight no longer happening the fight card has been shuffled accordingly ,with Sean O’Malley vs. Song Yadong now moving to the co-main event spot underneath Gaethje vs Pimblett, while a featured prelim bout between Rose Namajunas and Natalia Silva takes the remaining place on the main card alongside Derrick Lewis vs. Waldo-Cortes Acosta and Jean Silva vs. Arnold Allen.