Two-time PFL Lightweight world champion Kayla Harrison is without a doubt the biggest MMA talent in free agency right now, and she’s apparently going to test the limits of her body by cutting to Bantamweight too. It’s an interesting proposition for sure, because it’s completely new ground for the two-time olympic gold medalist Judoka. She has managed to make it down to the Featherweight division before when she fought for Invicta FC and seemed pretty comfortable weighing in at 145lbs.
During her illustrious Judo career, Harrison actually competed at 78kg (171lbs) for the majority of the time outside of a short period at 70kg (154lbs) so her trip to the Featherweight division in 2020 was entirely new to her at that point. As an elite-level athlete, she is in no way new to the challenges that come with cutting weight and she intends to take the opportunity seriously and hire a chef and a nutritionist to see if it’s even physically possible for her. Kayla Harrison was asked about the prospect of competing in the 135lbs Bantamweight division in a recent interview with ESPN:
“I’m considering it. I heard that [UFC champion] Julianna [Pena] said she’d move up to 145 if they paid her enough, so that’s good news. That means I don’t have to chop off an arm… I want to be the best. Everyone is talking about her.”
“Why not? I have to conquer one mountain at a time, though. Whatever mountain comes next.”
As it stands now, Harrison is still a free agent and both her existing home of PFL and the world’s most prestigious MMA organization, the UFC, are interested in signing her. She’s remaining relatively tight-lipped on where she will end up going and she confirmed in the interview that there’s more than a few different moving parts involved in the decision-making process:
“Other things have happened and there’s some last-minute things happening behind closed doors that I’m not entirely sure now what’s going to happen.”
