NEW YORK — [autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag] has won so many gold trophies over the course of her career, she’s starting to view them like her children.
Harrison’s unanimous-decision victory over the always-tough Larissa Pacheco in the main event of the 2019 PFL Championship on Tuesday night at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden not only added $1M to her bank account, but also added to a list of remarkable accomplishments, which include a pair of Olympic judo gold medals and a judo world championship.
“Well, I won two Olympic gold medals so those are my first two kids,” Harrison told MMA Junkie after he fight. “I have a championship gold medal, so that’s maybe my third baby, so this is maybe my fourth kid.”
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Harrison, who has competed seven times in less than two years and won all seven fights, is her own toughest critic. But at the end of the day, she wasn’t about to complain about her performance after taking home a big check and a new belt.
“It’s the end of the year, I learned a lot about myself in this fight, I learned a lot about fighting in this fight, and I also got a beautiful payday and live a truly blessed life,” Harrison said. “More important than anything is I got to touch gold again and got to taste gold and become a world champion again. It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t necessarily, pretty but life is not always pretty and I’m happy with the result.”
Harrison knows that some think she doesn’t appreciate what she’s accomplished to date, but she also knows that her approach has led to great success on a worldwide stage.
“I’m always going to be my toughest critic, you know?” Harrison said. “I demand and expect nothing but the best from myself and that’s why I’ve climbed the mountain so many times. I don’t apologize for it. I think a lot of people misinterpret it for being a poor sport. Absolutely not. Hat’s off to Larissa she’s an amazing fighter but it’s just that I expect so much more for myself but for tonight, for right now, I’m going to try to be in the moment and enjoy it, I can’t wait to go back to the gym.”
At this point of the night, everything was a blur for Harrison after logging 25 minutes for the first time in her career. But while she hasn’t mentally broken down how the fight went just yet, she’ll leave New York knowing the win over Pacheco was an important moment in her MMA development.
“I’m so in the moment that I don’t think I remember half the stuff that was going on in there, Harrison said. “But overall it was good, but I know for sure there’s a bunch of stuff I can get better at. I feel like this time around I was a lot more composed, I took my time, I picked my shots better, every single time I am getting in that cage I am getting invaluable experience. Going five rounds, you don’t do any more than five, so it was a good test for me and it was important to use as a stepping stone to get even better.”
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