Amanda Nunes did not mince words. Asked at UFC 334 media day about Norma Dumont's departure from the UFC, the former two-division champion called it a mistake — and said she would have done the exact opposite.
“Norma did very bad decision in her life to leave UFC.”
"Norma did very bad decision in her life to leave UFC," Nunes said. "She had two more fights. If I was her, I would have proved to UFC, I belong here. I feel going away from UFC is not a good decision."
Dumont announced on Tuesday that she has left the UFC after 13 fights in the Octagon. She asked for her release, and the promotion granted it, with two fights still left on her contract.
Dumont was grateful, not bitter. "I'm here to announce my official departure from the UFC," she said in a video posted to Instagram. "It was eight years with them, it was wonderful for me, it's where I built my career, it's where I built my financial life, I changed my life and the lives of the people around me."
The 36-year-old Brazilian had already been told the UFC likely would not renew her deal once those fights were done. "Even before my last bout, when I still had three fights to go, I already knew that I likely wouldn't be renewing my contract once those remaining two fights were finished," Dumont said, in a translation published by MMA Junkie. "I feel like I need to experience some new environments now."
Dumont and her fiancé, UFC middleweight Marco Tulio, had already agreed she would retire by the end of next year to start a family. Instead she is fighting on — most likely in a different sport. Dumont said she has been approached by a major boxing promotion and by another MMA organisation offering a title fight, and that the boxing offer is the more lucrative of the two. "Both offers are very good, but I confess I'm more inclined toward boxing," she said. "I think you'll see me in boxing next year." Talks are at an early stage and nothing is signed.
That is the part Nunes cannot accept. She walked away from the sport herself in June 2023, retiring moments after beating Irene Aldana at UFC 289, saying at the time that she was burned out. The difference, in her telling, is that she left as champion, on her own terms — and she is back. Dumont leaves ranked No. 4 in the women's bantamweight division, on a two-fight skid, after being told the promotion had already made up its mind about her future. Nunes's argument is that the two fights she left on the table were the chance to change that mind.
Dumont's UFC run backs up the frustration. She joined the promotion with a 4-0 record and debuted on February 29, 2020, against Megan Anderson, who knocked her out in the opening round — the only stoppage of her 13-fight UFC run; every other bout went the distance. She then put together a six-fight winning streak from 2022 to 2025, setting the UFC women's featherweight records for most wins (five) and longest winning streak (five) before the promotion shut the division down. Along the way she beat former featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie in April 2024, Irene Aldana at UFC 306 that September, and Ketlen Vieira by split decision on November 1, 2025.
The last two fights broke the run. Joselyne Edwards beat her by unanimous decision on April 25, 2026. Then Ailin Perez beat her by unanimous decision on September 26 in Las Vegas, all three judges scoring it 29-28 — a fight Dumont believes she won.
The timing is what makes the exit sting for the division. On Saturday at UFC 334, Kayla Harrison defends the women's bantamweight title against Nunes in the co-main event at Madison Square Garden. Nunes, 23-5, fights for the first time since June 10, 2023, when she beat Aldana and retired holding the belt — 1,253 days by fight night. Harrison, 19-1, won the title by submitting Julianna Peña at UFC 316; her first defense was postponed while she recovered from neck surgery. Edwards — the woman who beat Dumont in April — will be in New York to weigh in as the official backup.
So the division's No. 4 leaves in the very week its title is fought over, and the woman challenging for that title says she should have stayed to fight for it. "I feel going away from UFC is not a good decision," Nunes said. On Saturday she fights for the belt Dumont will now watch from the outside — most likely from a boxing ring, some time next year.
