by Preview First
My Predictions below preview
Preview is Per the UFC
Las Vegas – UFC® makes its highly anticipated return to Madison Square Garden in New York City with an absolutely stacked card featuring a can’t-miss championship doubleheader. In the main event, newly crowned undisputed UFC heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane looks to make his first title defense against No. 4 ranked contender Josh Hokit. The co-main event will see arguably the greatest women’s title fight of all time as reigning bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison takes on former champion and all-time great Amanda Nunes.
POLYMARKET UFC® 334: GANE vs. HOKIT takes place Saturday, November 14 at Madison Square Garden with the main card starting at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on Paramount+. The prelims will begin at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT. The early prelims will kick off at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT on Paramount+ and UFC Fight Pass.
POLYMARKET UFC® 334: GANE vs. HOKIT tickets will go on sale Friday, September 25 at 10 a.m. ET and are available at ticketmaster.com. Ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. UFC Fight Club® will have the opportunity to purchase tickets on Wednesday, September 23 at 10 a.m. ET via the website UFCFightClub.com. A special Internet ticket pre-sale will be available to UFC newsletter subscribers Thursday, September 24 at 10 a.m. ET. To access the pre-sale, users must register for the UFC newsletter through UFC.com.
Gane (14-2 1NC, fighting out of Paris, France) plans to make his first performance as undisputed UFC heavyweight champion a memorable one. A top talent in the division since debuting over seven years ago, Gane has shown off his world-class skills in victories over Alex Pereira, Serghei Spivac and Tai Tuivasa. He now intends to kick off his reign by silencing Hokit and handing him his first loss.
Upstart Hokit (10-0, fighting out of Albuquerque, N.M.) steps into his first main event with his eyes set on claiming UFC gold. A member of the UFC roster for just over a year after being signed on Season 9 of Dana White’s Contender Series, he has rocketed up the rankings following highlight-reel performances over Derrick Lewis, Curtis Blaydes and Denzel Freeman. Hokit now aims to complete one of the fastest runs to a UFC title in history by stopping Gane.
UFC bantamweight queen Harrison (19-1, fighting out of Coconut Creek, Fla.) returns to the Octagon looking to make a statement. A two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo, Harrison is considered one of the most accomplished female mixed martial artists of all time, a reputation she has bolstered with victories over Julianna Pena, Ketlen Vieira and Holly Holm. She now aims to achieve her most significant goal yet by defeating the greatest of all time in Nunes.
Nunes (23-5, fighting out of Miami, Fla.) steps back into action aiming to remind everyone why she is considered the best to ever do it. The only woman to ever win UFC belts in two separate weight classes and hold and defend them at the same time, she holds more than 15 UFC records, including most knockouts in UFC women’s history (7), most consecutive wins in UFC women’s history (12) and the longest combined UFC title reign of all time (3,940 days). Nunes now intends to show that she is still at the top of the division with another signature performance.
Other bouts on the card include:
- An intriguing middleweight bout sees No. 5 ranked Caio Borralho (18-2 1NC, fighting out of Sao Paulo, Brazil) face rising contender Yousri Belgaroui (11-3, fighting out of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
- An all-action welterweight contest features No. 12 ranked Uros Medic (14-3, fighting out of Anchorage, Alaska by way of Novi Sad, Serbia) taking on fan favorite Kevin Holland (29-15 1NC, fighting out of Fort Worth, Texas)
- Dana White’s Contender Series standout Bilal Hasan (10-0 1NC, fighting out of Everett, Wash.) looks for another highlight-reel finish as he faces veteran Luis Gurule (11-4, fighting out of Sheridan, Colo.) at flyweight
- Drew Dober (29-15 1NC, fighting out of Denver, Colo.) and Chris Duncan (15-3, fighting out of Glasgow, Scotland) collide in an all-action lightweight bout
- Stephen Thompson (17-9-1, fighting out of Simpsonville, S.C.) returns to action against Charles Radtke (12-5, fighting out of Chicago, Ill.) at welterweight
- Middleweight action pits undefeated up-and-comers Donte Johnson (9-0, fighting out of Fond du Lac, Wisc.) and Baisangur Susurkaev (12-0, fighting out of Miami, Fla. by way of Chechnya, Russia) head-to-head
- Jim Miller (39-19, fighting out of Sparta, N.J.) makes his 48th UFC appearance as he faces Terrance McKinney (18-9, fighting out of Spokane, Wash.) at lightweight
- No. 8 ranked UFC women’s bantamweight contender Macy Chiasson (11-6, fighting out of Dallas, Texas) aims to defend her spot in the rankings against undefeated No. 11 ranked Bia Mesquita (8-0, fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
- Adrian Yanez (18-6-1, fighting out of Houston, Texas) meets Juan Diaz (16-1-1, fighting out of Callao, Peru) in a can’t-miss bantamweight tilt
Pick Five Predictions per Vince McKee
Melquizael Costa over Jared Gordon
Reason – Costa holds the height, reach and age advantages. Costa is known for a high-volume kickboxing attack, dynamic leg and body kicks, and slick submission skills averaging 0.8 submissions per 15 minutes.
He is riding strong recent form with wins over fighters like Dan Ige, Morgan Charriere, and Kyle Erosa. He steps back up to the lightweight division for this matchup.
Gordon has lost two straight via a submission loss to Jim Miller and a knockout loss to Rafa Garcia. He is a wily veteran who relies on pressure boxing, dirty boxing in the clinch, and serviceable wrestling (34% takedown accuracy).
Charles Radtke over Stephen Thompson
Reason – The Undercard feature’s the retirement fight of UFC Welterweight Champion Challenger Stephen Thompson. Thompson has lost 3 in a row and 5 of his last 6 as his career winds down on Saturday versus Chales Radtke.
I have just seen it time and time again in “retirement” fights. The guy hanging it up for good almost always goes out on his sword and loses quickly as they leave nothing behind, go all out and typically get submitted or knocked out early. The fight emotionally and not tactically and that is almost always the difference and downfall.
Bilal Hasan over Luis Gurule
Reason – An undefeated and heavily hyped prospect who earned his UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series and won his promotional debut via knockout. He enters as a massive statistical and betting favorite. He also owns a 5 inch reach advantage over Gurule. I’d expect this one to be over quickly.
Amanda Nunes over Kayla Harrison
Reason – Amanda Nunes is one of the greatest fighters in MMA history, not just UFC women’s, but all of MMA both men and women! She is easily the greatest female fighter of all time and retired with countless years left in her prime she would dominated with. Her one and only loss in the last 12 years was a complete fluke loss to Julianna Pena. It was one she quickly rebounded from and won the title back from Pena less than 7 months later.
Now, people are going to say that she hasn’t fought in 3 years and will be too rusty to be effective long term. I disagree strongly and would like to remind everyone that GSP did this exact thing 10 years ago in 2016 when he returned from a 4 year hiatus to take the UFC Middleweight Championship off of Michael Bisping at UFC 217.
Nunes is perhaps one of the most physically gifted competitors in Women’s MMA history with landmark wins over Julianna Pena, Holly Holm, Cyborg, Raquel Pennington, Valentina Shevchenko, Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate, just to name a few. She destroyed all of them with ease.
The problem awaiting Nunes is that her opponent Kayla Harrison is perhaps the most decorated female competitor in MMA history. Many consider her the Kurt Angle, regarding her ease of coming from the amateur ranks into the pros and instantly dominating with zero resistance.
She is 19-1 in her MMA career and 3-0 in her UFC career with 3 dominant wins. He title win over Julianna Pena was like a lamb being led to the slaughter for the champ. Her wrestling and judo ability is nearly unmatched and if Nunes cannot over power her early on their feet, Harrison will cruise to victory.
My thought is this however, Harrison hasn’t fought since June of 2025 when she won the UDC Women’s Bantamweight Championship over Pena. At the time, she looked untouchable but she hasn’t fought since. The reason for the 17-month layoff after being diagnosed with herniated discs in her neck, which required surgery. Nunes is not the women you want to see after 17 months off at MSG when protecting your neck is going to be going through your mind the entire fight.
I think Nunes pulls the upset here and reminds everyone who she was and is!
Ciryl Gane over Josh Hokit
Reason – Ciryl Gane may be one of the most under rated or simply not noticed UFC Heavyweight Champion of all time. He may have done a little to change that at least at UFC Freedom 250. Gane had a stunning first round knockout of Alex Pereira in controversial fashion.
Gane has a history of controversial finishes as he fight before that was stopped early in the first when he eye poked Tom Aspinall. The poke was so bad, Aspinall fought since ( this was October of 2025 ) and now says he may have to retire. Before that, he had lost his prior two UFC Heavyweight Champion matches against Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou.
Pereira was not the champion, the belt was vacant and a lot of fans consider Gane to be a paper champion. Meanwhile, Hokit Is 10-0 with 9 brutal finishes. Of those 9, 5 have come in the very first round. The problem is, for Hokit, with the exception of gatekeepers Derrick Lewis and Curtis Blaydes, he hasn’t beaten anyone.
I think Gane simply outclasses Hokit in this one, silencing the growing critics.
