Beatriz ‘Bia’ Mesquita is just about to make her UFC debut and Kayla Harrison is apparently a big inspiration for her as she prepares for it. The two women actually have a lot in common, as they both reached the highest levels of their own sports before making the transition to MMA. Mesquita is one of the most successful female BJJ competitors of all time and Harrison is a two-time Olympic gold medallist for Judo, and both of them had to adapt their styles to involve strikes. That’s a long and difficult process of course, but both of them have so far managed to do it very well.
Harrison is further ahead in her career of course, as she won the UFC bantamweight title back at UFC 316 earlier this year. Mesquita on the other hand is coming up to her first fight for the promotion, but she has the same goals that Harrison once did. She explained that it was training alongside Harrison at American Top Team that really opened her eyes:
“I think that girl became an aspiration after we started training together, mainly because she’s always striving for the best version of herself. Yeah, regardless of her being an Olympic champion, the PFL champion, the current UFC champion, I see her every day in the gym, always dedicating herself right, so that, of course, becomes an inspiration.”
They’ve since become frequent training partners and according to Mesquita, they’ve actually learnt a lot from each other:
“Ever since I joined, that we’ve had this partnership, this really cool exchange, she’s helping me, right, with all her experience, and I’m helping her in her ground games, and we have this very positive exchange of energy.”
The full interview with Beatriz ‘Bia’ Mesquita where she talks about Kayla Harrison being an inspiration was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of AG Fight:
