The one manner for two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison to get into the UFC was by means of the bantamweight division. The UFC was fairly clear together with her on that after they signed her for a UFC 300 combat towards Holly Holm.
The one downside? Harrison gained her gold medals at 170 kilos, and has fought most of her MMA profession at 155 kilos. She minimize all the way down to featherweight as soon as in 2020, however has by no means fought at bantamweight.
It appeared like there was an opportunity she would possibly signal with the UFC in 2021 to combat Amanda Nunes at featherweight. However on the night time many anticipated “Judo Kayla” to step into the Octagon to problem her, “Lioness” misplaced her bantamweight belt, scuttling these plans. The ladies’s featherweight division was additionally scuttled quickly after … leaving Harrison with no selection however to chop all the way down to 135.
“There was positively part of me that was like, ‘F— that,’” she mentioned in a brand new interview with MMA Junkie. “‘You’ve performed sufficient. Why would you spend the final a part of your profession chopping an additional 10 kilos? Like, why?’”
“Then there was one other half piece of me that was like, ‘Nicely, we develop on the edges of our consolation zone, and that is you being all in. It doesn’t get a lot tougher than this. You’re chopping to a brand new weight class, you’re combating within the promotion, and also you’re combating the legend. That is it. You’re both all in or not in.’ I favored that, and I feel that brings out the very best model of me.”
The large narrative surrounding her UFC debut towards former champion Holm is how she’ll look on the dimensions, and the way she’ll compete after. Harrison (whose supervisor claims has accomplished a check minimize to 135 earlier than agreeing to the combat) has no doubts on with the ability to combat to her finest skills.
“I don’t assume I’m going to lose something,” she mentioned. “I feel we’re going to see the very best model of me. I’ve been disciplined. I’ve been devoted. I haven’t skipped any steps. I haven’t left a stone unturned. My staff is all in, I’m all in, my household’s all in, and I feel I’m about to shine actually f—ing vibrant.”
UFC 300 goes down on April thirteenth from the T-Cellular Enviornment in Las Vegas, Nevada.
