NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Kayla Harrison had just added UFC gold to her championship fight collection — and hugged it out with President Donald Trump — and still clutched the title belt when she bumped into Merab Dvalishvili backstage.
Dvalishvili was on cloud nine — well, make it 13 to match his winning streak — after he successfully defended his 135-pound championship with a dominant performance in the main event of UFC 316.
Two bantamweight champions. One big party.
“Congratulations, champ! Let me raise your hand,” Dvalishvili told Harrison. “We are the champions!”
Dvalishvili then issued a quick pointer to Harrison — more used to wearing Olympic gold around her neck —- on how to hold the belt for a photo opp.
She best enjoy her time atop the division while she can — Harrison’s presumed next challenger in Amanda Nunes stepping out of retirement and into the cage for a chance to get her belt back.
Dvalishvili retained his 135-pound championship when he tapped out Sean O’Malley in the third round and Harrison made 135-pound champion Julianna Peña quit with five seconds left in the second round in front of a crowd that included Trump and retired heavyweight great Mike Tyson on Saturday night at the Prudential Center.
Dvalishvili, a 34-year-old from the country of Georgia, won the belt in a convincing — though not aesthetically pleasing — unanimous decision last year over O’Malley. O’Malley realized after the loss to truly be at his best — as a fighter, as a family man — he needed to make difficult lifestyle sacrifices to round himself into peak form.
The 30-year-old contender quit smoking marijuana among other bad habits and also ditched his trademark dyed hair. No more cornucopia of colors that turned his locks into rainbows or cotton candy tops. O’Malley sported brown, braided hair for the fight — leaving his fans to wear bright afro wigs in his honor.
New look, same result.
Dvalishvili — who had to duck a small railing collapse on his walk out that almost had fans spill onto the floor — ran his record to 20-4 and sat on top of the cage and bellowed toward the 17,343 fans in the start of an exuberant celebration of his 13th straight MMA victory, tied for fourth longest in UFC history.
“I’m on top of the world!,” he said inside the cage.
That made the bantamweight champs 1 for 2 on the night.
Harrison, who said she struggled so hard with cutting weight to 135 pounds that she feared just how she would make it in one piece ahead of the weigh in, continued to move up the list in just a short time as one of the great female fighters in MMA history.
She’s used to major victories in the spotlight.
No U.S. judoka — man or woman — had ever won an Olympic gold medal before Harrison beat Britain’s Gemma Gibbons to win the women’s 78-kilogram division at the 2012 London Olympics. She won gold again four years later at the Rio de Janeiro Games and made her MMA debut in 2018.
The 34-year-old Harrison was a two-time $1 million prize champion in the Professional Fighters League lightweight championship division before she moved on to UFC last year. She won her first two UFC bouts and her record — now a sparkling 19-1 in MMA overall — coupled with her fame made her an instant contender for a title shot.
She needed just three UFC fights to become a champion.
Harrison dropped to her knees in a teary celebration as Ivanka Trump stood and snapped photos of the moment. Harrison then called out Nunes, who retired in 2023 but said ahead of the fight she would return to the cage to fight the winner.
“I definitely want to fight Amanda. She’s the greatest of all time,” Harrison said. “I want to be the greatest of all time.”
Harrison called out Nunes to enter the ring and after some encouragement from announcer Joe Rogan for security to open the cage door, she walked in and the two went face-to-face. Nunes, who is set for induction this summer into the UFC Hall of Fame, said she would indeed fight Harrison at some point for the 135-pound belt.
The crowd went wild as the two engaged in a brief staredown.
“We’re going to bring women’s MMA to a whole new level,” Harrison said.
The moment had fans roaring in delight much as they did hours earlier when Trump walked out to a thunderous standing ovation just ahead of the start of the UFC pay-per-view card. Trump was accompanied by UFC President Dana White and the pair headed to their cageside seats for UFC 316 to Kid Rock’s “American Bad Ass.”
Harrison took a page from her judo career and bowed to Trump as a sign of respect before the bout and hugged him after the win. She received a congratulatory kiss on the cheek from Trump and posed for photos with the President and his entourage.
It wasn’t the only nod to Trump’s latest appearance at a UFC fight.
UFC fighter Kevin Holland choked out Vicente Luque to win the first fight with Trump in the building. He scaled the cage and shook hands with Trump. He briefly chatted with Trump and White before he returned for his post-fight interview.
Joe Pyfer draped himself in the American flag after he defeated Kelvin Gastelum in a middleweight bout by unanimous decision.
“We’ve got the President of the United States! We’ve got Mike Tyson,” Pyfer bellowed inside the cage.
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