5 reasons why Kayla Harrison is exactly what UFC's women's division needs
Kayla Harrison has earned widespread praise for her martial arts excellence over the years. She's beheld as a legendary athlete and known to have an amiable persona. Harrison is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, having captured the top prize in the 78-kilogram weight class in Judo at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
Additionally, the Ohio-born Florida-based Judoka achieved tremendous success after transitioning to the sport of MMA. She's a former two-time PFL women's lightweight champion, notably winning the PFL women's lightweight tournaments in 2019 and 2021.
Kayla Harrison triumphantly debuted in the UFC in April 2024 with a spectacular second-round submission victory over Holly Holm and is eyeing a title shot with a dominant showing at UFC 307. Today, we look at why Harrison is the shot in the arm that the UFC women's divisions currently need.
#5 Otherworldly grappling greatness
Certain sections of the MMA community often assert that the sport has evolved far too much for a one-martial art specialist to compete at the highest levels.
Regardless, there have been exceptions, such as Judo legend 'Rowdy' Ronda Rousey and Sambo practitioner Khabib Nurmagomedov, who forged unforgettable legacies in mixed martial arts. Granted that they eventually trained in other arts as well, but their fighting efficacy primarily relied on their respective grappling-centric art.
Similarly, Kayla Harrison, who's incidentally Rousey's former training partner, is a Judo specialist who's wreaked havoc since making her professional MMA debut in June 2018. Rousey's UFC run was adversely affected by a Hollywood detour and her subsequent exit which she later attributed to concussion issues.
However, 'Rowdy' did show us moments of unparalleled grappling domination during her reign as the UFC women's bantamweight champion. Harrison could do the same, write her name in the history books as one of the greatest grapplers to have ever competed inside the octagon, and perhaps even surpass her predecessor's legacy.
Also, Harrison keeps sharpening her skills in other grappling martial arts such as wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu as well. It signifies her humility -- her openness to learn other arts from scratch in spite of being a Judo savant.
#4 Kayla Harrison's underrated striking
Boxing great and ex-UFC women's bantamweight champion Holly Holm was the first fighter to defeat and finish the fearsome Ronda Rousey in MMA, courtesy of her stellar striking. Harking back to Kayla Harrison's epic UFC debut against Holm, it's rather odd that she didn't get enough credit for striking with the legendary pugilist.
Harrison went as far as landing a head kick against Holm. It didn't connect akin to Holm's iconic head kick against Rousey, but was a good one nonetheless! Right from her MMA career's early stages, mainly in the PFL, Harrison showcased a better understanding of striking fundamentals than most other grapplers.
The Judoka's boxing is criminally underrated and she boasts an educated jab that's often overlooked because of her terrifying grappling. Harrison is someone who boasts otherworldly grappling that she keeps improving and respectable striking that she's swiftly evolving.
When it's all said and done, she could transform into one of the UFC's deadliest strikers. Now that she's in the world's premier MMA organization, she'd likely clash against opponents who can fend off some takedowns and keep on the fight on the feet for longer periods.
Ergo, she has the chance to truly let her striking shine, which is a win-win in regard to adding excitement to women's MMA.
#3 Mic skills like a WWE superstar
The UFC's parent company acquired the world's top professional wrestling-based sports-entertainment organization, WWE, in 2023. The UFC-WWE merger under the TKO Group Holdings banner subsequently led many to speculate whether we'd see more crossovers between the UFC and WWE.
Well, if there's any fighter in the UFC or all of MMA who can have a highly successful WWE career, it's Kayla Harrison. For all the WWE fans reading this right now, here's an analogy you'll agree with -- Harrison has the mic skills of a WWE superstar from the Attitude Era!
This is where things get even more interesting. The women's divisions have no shortage of fighters with the gift of gab. Ironically, even UFC staple Julianna Pena, whom Harrison absolutely lambasted at the UFC 307 pre-fight press conference, is known for relentless trash talk.
Nevertheless, what sets Kayla Harrison apart is her extraordinary wittiness and ability to naturally balance her verbal warfare. Harrison seems to instinctively know when to make over-the-top outlandish jibes and when to stick to the verbal destruction of her opponent by using statistics and facts. Paradoxically, her trash talk is a breath of fresh air in the UFC.
#2 An inspirational story and a role model
Kayla Harrison has experienced magnificent heights of success as a sportsperson, first in Judo and later on in MMA. That said, her personal life has been marked by adversities of a very serious nature, which would've probably destroyed most others.
In 2022, Harrison put forth a series of tweets, recounting her father's passing. She noted that her father killed himself on St. Patrick's Day in 2014 and added that she'd not spoken to him for 72 days before his demise.
Kayla Harrison has long been a staunch activist against child se*ual abuse. Harrison's been quite vocal about her story of survival after overcoming se*ual abuse at the hands of her former coach Daniel Doyle. It reportedly started when she was 13, and she opened up about it at 16. Thereafter, Doyle was handed a 10-year prison sentence and banned from the sport of Judo.
Moreover, Harrison often speaks about how she loves being a mother to her children. Her story is truly inspirational and will resonate with fans worldwide. With the UFC's promotional machine behind her, she can not only elevate women's MMA but also contribute toward the betterment of society.
Watch highlights from Kayla Harrison's inspirational story below:
#1 Revive a forgotten division and possibly add new ones
No. This isn't just about the UFC women's bantamweight division, which Kayla Harrison is currently a part of. Harrison could very well capture the UFC women's bantamweight title in the near future.
Regardless, if you look at the bigger picture, she could do much more for the women's dominion in the UFC, especially by precipitating the revival and addition of weight classes to accommodate more women in the organization.
Harrison is one of the rare fighters who have fighting and mic skills, complemented by her charismatic persona outside the octagon, in addition to the ability to succeed in various weight classes. She's fought at lightweight, featherweight, and bantamweight in her MMA career.
Since Amanda Nunes vacated the UFC women's bantamweight and featherweight belts in June 2023, the featherweight division has been forced into oblivion. Fortuitously, Harrison is here to save the day. She has the potential to revive the UFC women's featherweight division and perhaps even convince the promotional brass to establish a UFC women's lightweight division as well.
Remember when Dana White once asserted that women would never fight in the UFC, only for Ronda Rousey to change his mind and create history? Kayla Harrison could pull off something similar, and with her continued success, she could become not only the biggest star in the women's MMA realm but in all of MMA and beyond.