Tag: Kayla Harrison

Spinning Back Clique: How will UFC lightweight division shake out with Khabib still champ?

Check out the latest episode of Spinning Back Clique unpacking UFC 255, the lightweight division’s outlook, and more.

Welcome to “Spinning Back Clique,” MMA Junkie’s weekly show that takes a quick spin through the biggest topics in mixed martial arts. This week, Simon Head hosts the panel of MMA Junkie Radio’s “Gorgeous” George,” as well as MMA Junkie’s John Morgan and Mike Bohn. Let’s get after it!

SHOW TOPICS

  • UFC flyweight champion [autotag]Deiveson Figueiredo[/autotag] needed less than two minutes to submit Alex Perez, and the promotion has wasted no time in booking his next title defense. Figueiredo will take on fellow UFC 255 winner [autotag]Brandon Moreno[/autotag] on Dec. 12 at UFC 256, marking a 21-day turnaround for both men. Is this a good idea? And which fighter stands to benefit the most from the short lead time?
  • The other title fight this past Saturday saw UFC women’s flyweight champion [autotag]Valentina Shevchenko[/autotag] defend her title against Jennifer Maia. After her victory, UFC president Dana White mentioned three potential matchups next, with Jessica Andrade, Zhang Weili and, possibly, Amanda Nunes all mentioned. Which bout makes the most sense, and where does the in-form Lauren Murphy fit into all of this?
  • UFC 255 also saw the return to action of “Platinum” [autotag]Mike Perry[/autotag], who lost out on the scorecards to Tim Means after an entertaining back-and-forth battle. Perry is now 7-7 in the UFC and missed weight by 4.5 pounds last week. Given all that’s gone on with Perry, how do you assess his status in the UFC right now, and what should come next at this stage in his career?
  • Business is picking up once again in the UFC lightweight division, with [autotag]Dustin Poirier[/autotag] and [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag] officially set to rematch Jan. 23 at UFC 257, while [autotag]Tony Ferguson[/autotag] returns to fight [autotag]Charles Oliveira[/autotag] on Dec. 12 at UFC 256. It means some of the big guns of the division will be facing off, but what’s going on with the title? [autotag]Khabib Nurmagomedov[/autotag] says he’s retired, but White is hanging on to the possibility that the champ might come back for one more fight. How will this all shake out in the coming months?
  • And finally, we had a ton of non-UFC action on the slate last week, with outstanding performances delivered by the likes of [autotag]A.J. McKee[/autotag] (Bellator 253), [autotag]Alex Pereira[/autotag] (LFA 95) and PFL champ [autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag] (Invicta FC 43). To wrap things up, who among those three impressed the most?

For answers to all of those questions, watch Episode 54 of “Spinning Back Clique” above.

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Invicta FC 43 results: Kayla Harrison mauls Courtney King in featherweight debut

Kayla Harrison made a successful featherweight debut.

[autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag]’s featherweight debut could not have gone any better.

The 2019 PFL lightweight champion picked up a dominant victory in her first fight down at 145 pounds in the main event of Invicta FC 43 on Friday night in Kansas City, Kansas. Harrison (8-0 MMA) stopped Courtney King with ground-and-pound at the 4:48 mark of round two.

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It was a dominant showing all throughout the fight by the Olympic judo gold medalist, in the first of two bouts she’ll fight in Invicta while the PFL remains on hiatus.

Harrison got a trip early in the first and landed heavy elbows on King (4-2 MMA) as she advanced positions into mount. Harrison maintained top control for the majority of the round and opened a nasty cut between King’s eyes. With about 30 second remaining, Harrison went for an armbar. She had the submission locked but she was unable to stretch the arm before the bell rang.

The second round was no different. Harrison blast-doubled King, gained side control, and landed ground-and-pound until the referee waved things off.

Harrison remains unbeaten in MMA. The 30-year-old made her debut in summer of 2018 competing at 155 pounds. She’s regarded as one of the most promising talents in women’s MMA.

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Harrison is expected to compete in the 2021 PFL lightweight tournament set to kick off in spring. In the meantime, she’s contracted to potentially fight twice in Invicta, of which Friday night’s bout was the first.

Below are the full results for Invicta FC 43:

  • Kayla Harrison def. Courtney King TKO (ground-and-pound) – Round 2, 4:48
  • Stephanie Geltmacher def. Caitlin Sammons knockout – Round 1, 4:28
  • Hope Chase def. Brittney Cloudy submission (rear-naked choke)
  • Meaghan Penning def. Alexa Culp unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
  • Juliana Miller def. Kendal Holowell via submission (arm-bar) – Round 1, 0:49

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Kayla Harrison on future Amanda Nunes fight: She’s GOAT, ‘I’m a beginner, but she’s who I’m chasing’

With Kayla Harrison making her 145-pound debut, could a fight with UFC featherweight champion Amanda Nunes be on the horizon?

With [autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag] making her 145-pound debut, could a fight with UFC featherweight champion [autotag]Amanda Nunes[/autotag] be on the horizon?

PFL lightweight champion Harrison (7-0) will drop down to featherweight for the first time in her career when she faces Courtney King (4-1) in the co-main event of Friday’s Invicta FC 43, which streams live on UFC Fight Pass from Kansas City, Kan.

Some have suggested it looks like a logical first step toward a fight with two-division UFC champion Nunes, but Harrison says there’s no rush. Both fighters currently train under the same roof at American Top Team, but that’s not the issue for Harrison. Instead, the two-time Olympic judo champion wants to make sure she garners enough experience before a potential meeting with the consensus greatest female fighter of all time.

“We both had a crazy year,” Harrison told MMA Junkie. “She just had a baby. I just got two babies. It’s been a heck of a year. She’s the GOAT. I’m a beginner, but she’s who I’m chasing. She knows that, I know that, everyone knows that. She’s who I aspire to be like. That’s the goal, is to be the best ever. Right now, I’m just focused on making 145, winning this fight, on to the next fight, on to the next fight, on to the next fight. But, one step at a time, that’s how that happens. I think in the future … I’m never going to say no.

“I’m never going to say no to that opportunity. I would do it with respect and utmost pride in being able to fight her, and I love Amanda. I think she is awesome. I think she’s a good person. I think she’s a great fighter. I think she’s – I don’t know. I have nothing but good things to say about her, so if it happens, it’s not going to be like a nasty – it’s not going to be like a Colby-Masvidal. It’s going to be like a, ‘I love you, but we’ve got to go do business. Let’s go both make some money.'”

With the UFC’s rather shallow featherweight division, there aren’t too many challenges ahead at 145 pounds for Nunes, who’s scheduled to face Megan Anderson in the first quarter of 2021.

But for Harrison, it’s King first on Friday, and potentially one more fight before the 2021 PFL season kicks off in April.

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PFL champ Kayla Harrison has ‘jitters all over again’ kicking off potential two-fight Invicta run

With Olympic gold medals and a PFL title, Kayla Harrison is a proven commodity, but she’s feeling first-time nerves ahead of Invicta FC 43.

With a pair of Olympic gold medals to her name, along with PFL’s 2019 women’s lightweight championship, [autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag] knows a thing or two about competing at an elite level. But ahead of her Invicta FC debut, Harrison admits she’s feeling a few butterflies.

“Listen, I’ve got those jitters all over again,” Harrison told MMA Junkie. “It feels like the first time all over again. It’s been 11 months. It’s been a long time.”

Undefeated in her MMA career thus far, Harrison defeated Larissa Pacheco this past December to claim the PFL 2019 season title, as well as the $1 million prize that comes along with it. But the 30-year-old American Top Team product has been forced to the sidelines since with the PFL scrapping its 2020 season due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Harrison admits the time away from competition has provided some benefit in allowing her to continue developing her full skillset. However, the highly driven athlete in her has also struggled with no fights on the calendar.

“I feel like I’ve definitely gotten a lot better, just focusing on me, my game, finding my holes, closing them up,” Harrison said. “Not having the stress of having a fight and worrying about an opponent, someone across the cage from you, has definitely – I’ve gotten a lot, lot better. At the same time, I’m the kind of person that needs a goal, so not having a goal, not having a fight, has mentally been torture. But in every other aspect, I feel I’ve gotten better.

“I’ve used the time. I didn’t stray off the course. I stayed focused, hoping that an opportunity would arise.”

Now, one has.

With the permission of PFL officials, Harrison (7-0) faces Courtney King (4-1) in the co-main event of Friday’s Invicta FC 43, which streams live on UFC Fight Pass from Kansas City, Kan.

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For Harrison, who is ranked No. 13 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie women’s pound-for-pound rankings, it’s her first time competing outside the PFL. Perhaps even more intriguing, it’s her first time at featherweight after opening her career at 155 pounds.

Harrison, who has long stood against weight-cutting in combat sports, admits she’d prefer not to go to 145 pounds but says she wasn’t able to find any willing opponents in what she considers her more natural weight class.

“I still don’t believe in weight-cutting,” Harrison said. “I still think it sends a bad message to young kids, young fighters coming up. I still think it’s super dangerous, but I had to make a sacrifice, and I had to decide either I fight this year or I sit on the sidelines and I watch everybody else fight. I’ve been dieting really hard. I’ve been very focused, very disciplined … so the weight cut’s not going to be too, too tough.

“Do I agree with it? No. Do I think it sucks? Yes. Am I willing to suck it up and do what it takes to be one of the best in the world? Yes. If that means I don’t get any Halloween candy, then I don’t get any Halloween candy.”

Should she prove successful at 145 pounds, Harrison could see even more opportunities arise moving forward. She’s aiming to compete once more before the PFL resumes operations in April, currently eyeing January for another booking, though she says the details of that lie fully with her manager, Ali Abdelaziz.

“I think it’s going to be for Invicta,” Harrison said. “Ali is the miracle worker with all this. I just show up and fight.”

But for now, Harrison is simply focused on the task at hand, which means showing that the past 11 months on the sidelines have not been wasted and that she’s developed as a more complete MMA fighter – albeit one who has a pretty reliable tool in her back pocket.

“I think I’m going to go out there and dominate,” Harrison said. “I think people are going to be surprised to see me throw a little more this fight. I think I’m going to not be afraid to stand on my feet. I don’t think I’m in danger anywhere. I think I’ve got some power now. I’m developing my striking. I think it’s going to be – if all else fails, I’ll shoot a double, obviously.

“So who knows what the hell is going to happen? I might get in there and bullrush. Who knows? But my goal is to go out there and be confident, composed, do a little bit on the feet and get a feel for what it really feels like to punch somebody in the face with all my might and not be shy, not be afraid to stay in the pocket and get hit. The goal is to hit and not get hit, but it’s time for me to start becoming an MMA fighter, not just shoot the double.”

To see the full interview with Harrison, check out the video below.

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PFL champion Kayla Harrison to make featherweight debut vs. Courtney King at Invicta FC 43

PFL lightweight champion Kayla Harrison will get her wish to stay active when she faces Courtney King at Invicta FC 43.

PFL lightweight champion [autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag] will get her wish to stay active.

Harrison (7-0) will drop down to 145 pounds for the first time in her career when she takes on Courtney King in the Invicta FC 43 co-main event Nov. 20 in Kansas City, Mo. The event streams on UFC Fight Pass.

The undefeated two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka hasn’t competed since December 2019, when she defeated Larissa Pacheco to win the PFL lightweight season.

With the PFL on hold for the entire 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Harrison will compete under the Invicta FC banner before returning in April for the 2021 PFL season.

The current Invicta 43 lineup includes:

  • Emily Ducote vs. Montserrat Ruiz – for strawweight title
  • Kayla Harrison vs. Courtney King
  • Stephanie Geltmacher vs. Caitlin Sammons
  • Hope Chase vs. Brittney Cloudy
  • Alexa Culp vs. Meaghan Penning
  • Kendal Holowell vs. Juliana Miller

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Kayla Harrison copes with uncertainty after PFL postponed 2020 season

Kayla Harrison understands why the PFL 2020 season had to be canceled, but hopes the company can put together one-off cards to keep fighters sharp.

When the 2020 Summer Olympics scheduled for July 24-Aug. 9 in Tokyo were postponed on March 2, [autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag] fully grasped the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic.

Harrison, the 2019 PFL women’s lightweight champion, earned two Olympic gold medals in judo. And having lived through such an experience, she has firsthand knowledge of both the amount of effort world-class athletes have to put into preparing for the event and the sheer scope of staging the world’s biggest sporting event.

You don’t pull the plug on such an effort lightly, so when the Games were pushed back to 2021 due to the worldwide COVID-19 problem, Harrison grasped that this was a really big deal.

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“It’s kind of when I knew it was serious, when they decided to postpone the Olympics,” Harrison recently told MMA Junkie. “I was like, OK, this is global, this is big, this is for real. That’s billions and billions and billions of dollars. They’re not just going to, they’re not going to postpone it. Like, we’re still so far away from it, unless it was very serious, there’s no way the Olympics would be postponed. So that’s when I knew it was pretty serious.”

Eventually, the chain reaction was going to spill over into MMA. That happened this week, when the PFL, which had previously postponed the start of the 2020 season, formally pulled the plug on the season in its entirety. Harrison, who had expected her first fight of the season to come in June, had been training and was surprised to hear about the news on the internet before being informed personally.

“Unfortunately, I was not aware before it became public,” Harrison said. “I actually found out in the middle of training, so that was a bummer. And my initial reaction was, I mean, I wasn’t surprised, I know it was going to be really, really difficult to hold the full season just with all the craziness that’s going on. But definitely disappointment – major, major disappointment.”

Harrison understands why the season needed to be canceled, as the logistics of pulling off full regular season and playoff rounds became too difficult to manage.

However, she hopes that before 2020 is out, the PFL will put together one-off fight cards outside of their main season-based concept, simply so that fighters don’t stagnate and lose more a year or more of their careers without competing.

“My hope is that once the country opens back, and the economy opens back up, that they’ll decide go ahead and have fights – maybe not the season, which I know is an integral part of what makes the PFL so special,” she said. “But, I think they should still give their fighters an opportunity to fight. You know, going 15 months with no action is just not feasible, I think. So hopefully they figure out a way to do one-off events. I know that they’re talking about putting out a lot of content and behind the scenes and working with ESPN to do stuff like that, but listen, as a fighter, my No. 1 goal is to fight. That’s it. It’s not really about making money, it’s not about chasing anything like that, I just want to fight and I want to keep getting better. My hope is that pretty soon I hear some news about, OK, we’re going to have some fights at the end of the year.”

Until then, Harrison’s day-to-day existence really isn’t all that different than the rest of us.

“Honestly, the hardest part is just not knowing what the future holds,” Harrison said. “We have so much unanswered questions and dilemmas and everyone wants things to go to back to normal, but it’s also not really clear whether or not we’ll ever go back to that normal or if we’re going to have to establish a new kind of normal.”

Kayla Harrison featured in debut episode of PFL’s ‘Run it Back’ series

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison relives her 2019 PFL championship in the debut episode of “Run it Back.”

Mixed martial arts action is on hiatus during the coronavirus pandemic, but the PFL will help fill the void with an interesting new series.

“Run it Back” will feature PFL fighters looking back on their million-dollar championship victories. The debut episode – which streams live Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET on the promotion’s YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram channels – will feature the company’s brightest star, two-time Olympic judo gold medalist [autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag].

Harrison added to her lengthy list of sporting accomplishments on Dec. 31, when she defeated Larissa Pacheco to become 2019 women’s lightweight champion. She’ll look back on her memorable season with PFL play-by play announcer Sean O’Connell.

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New episodes of “Run it Back” will air each Thursday through May 11. Future featured fighters are Ray Cooper III (April 9), Sean O’Connell (April 16), Emiliano Sordi (April 23), David Michaud (April 30), Natan Schulte (May 7), and Lance Palmer (May 14).

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PFL champ Kayla Harrison thinks she may have to move to featherweight one day

PFL champion Kayla Harrison thinks she’ll eventually have to make some changes to cement her legacy.

[autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag] is already a PFL champion less than two years in to her MMA career, but thinks she’ll eventually have to make some changes to cement her legacy.

Harrison (7-0 MMA), a two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo, currently competes at lightweight, a barely established division in women’s MMA.

While she has run through most of her competition, which mostly has consisted of former featherweight and bantamweight fighters, Harrison said she knows she’ll likely have to move down a weight class if she wants to establish herself as one of the greatest fighters to ever do it.

Despite PFL not having a 145-pound division, Harrison said she’s still happy fighting there – but hinted her long-term future may be as a featherweight, where the opportunity to fight in the UFC against the world’s best would help her case.

“I don’t love the idea of ’45, but I’m willing. Everyone has a price, right?” Harrison told MMA Junkie at a media day for Dominance MMA fighters in Las Vegas earlier this month. “I firmly believe in not cutting weight. I firmly believe in the lifestyle that I have. But obviously I understand that if I want to go down as one of the greatest of all time, I’m going to probably have to fight at 145, and that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make in order to reach the goals that I’ve set for myself.

“I’m very happy at the PFL. I love what they’re doing. I love how they’re changing the game. I love being a role model and being the poster child for their promotion. But time will tell. We’ll see what happens. One year at a time, one fight at a time, one minute at a time, one exchange at a time – that’s all I can do.”

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Kayla Harrison isn’t 100 percent on open scoring but considers it ‘a step in the right direction’

Reigning PFL women’s lightweight champion Kayla Harrison has an open mind about open scoring.

[autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag] isn’t a firm advocate of open scoring in MMA, but if the sport is attempting to improve and evolve by trying new things, count her in.

Speaking recently during a Dominance MMA media day in Las Vegas, the reigning PFL women’s lightweight champion said she’s happy to see the sport making moves to get better.

“I’m not saying I support (open scoring). I’m saying we need to try new things,” Harrison told MMA Junkie. “Obviously the system that we have right now is a little bit broken. There are all kinds of fights where people don’t know what’s going on. There are people who shouldn’t really be winning. There’s all kinds of stuff going on where the sport needs a little more consistency, and I think it needs a little more transparency. And that comes from the top down.

“I’m not just talking about judging. I think the sport needs to make a lot of changes. I don’t know exactly how I feel about the open scoring, but I think that testing the waters and trying it out is a step in the right direction. The only way you can start to make improvements is by taking chances, making changes, trying stuff out, and I support that. We gotta try.”

Harrison (7-0) thinks there’s an argument for scoring not being 100 percent open, with fans able to see the judges’ scores, but not the competing fighters themselves.

“The fans? Yeah, I think the fans should know what’s going on for sure,” Harrison said. “Maybe you don’t tell the fighters. OK, I can understand that, you not telling the fighters what’s going on. But I totally think it should be transparent what the judges are scoring each round, for the fans 100 percent. That makes perfect sense.”

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One of the criticisms of open scoring is the notion that fighters who know they are ahead will coast to victory in the later rounds, rather than going full throttle, to guarantee the win and that it would provoke negative fan reaction. Harrison offered an alternative take, however.

“That’s part of sport, right? People always find ways to manipulate the rule set, right? You see that now,” Harrison said. “If someone wins four rounds in a title fight, you see a lot of people pull off the gas in the fifth round and spend more time on their footwork. But that’s strategy, that comes with every sport. This isn’t gladiators, as much as everyone would like to see everyone run out and try to smash each others’ faces in. This is a sport, a high-level sport that is getting more and more difficult by the day. People are becoming more and more technical, and more and more well rounded. When you get in there, it’s a fight. And, yes, you do still have the opportunity to get your face smashed in. But the more you hit and don’t get hit, the more you play the game, the more likely you are to be successful, and at the end of the day, that’s what a fighter wants. A fighter wants to win the fight.

“People being upset about people running and this and that. You know what I say? I say, ‘You know what? They just won four rounds. What the hell! You should be commending them. That’s a hell of a performance to go out to win four or even five rounds solid. That’s not a boring fight. That’s a one-sided clinic. Congratulations to them!’ That’s how fans should be perceiving it. Not, ‘Oh, they didn’t have a war!’ Obviously, I’m a fan too. I like to see wars, don’t get me wrong. But as a fighter, I like to see technical fights. I like to see that side of it.”

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