Kayla Harrison has done pretty well for herself in her MMA career.
After a stellar run through judo that saw her become a two-time Olympic gold medalist, Harrison decided to make the transition to MMA in 2018. Harrison got her feet wet in the MMA world by doing some cageside reporting and commentary for the PFL. The tracks were laid out for Harrison to fight in the promotion and when she finally did, she dominated as expected.
Harrison, 33, went 15-1 in the PFL (17-1 overall) and won two lightweight titles across her tenure from June 2018 to November 2023. In 2024, Harrison parted ways with the promotion to sign with the UFC. PFL founder Donn Davis has been proud of the crossover rates between promotions as it heavily favors the direction of PFL. However, its big homegrown superstar Harrison wasn’t the one Davis expected to leave and equates it to a comparison between two of the NBA’s biggest stars.
“Some people at the very, very, very top of their career are LeBron James and some at the very, very top are Kevin Durant and they’re both otherworldly basketball players, but who they are is very different as people,” Davis said on WEIGHING IN. “One wants to lead and change their sport and wherever they are is the best in the world. The other is a follower who needs validation and we couldn’t do anything about that”
Not only did Harrison make her UFC debut at UFC 300 this past month, she also competed at bantamweight for the first time in her career. One of the biggest knocks on Harrison’s run thus far has been the level of competition she’s faced.
As a larger athlete from her judo days, Harrison was never fond of weight-cutting, which prompted the PFL to create a lightweight division for her — a women’s division that simply doesn’t exist in MMA. Therefore, fighters in the league’s lightweight seasons often were actually featherweights and bantamweights and, in some cases, flyweights.
Ultimately, Harrison had a great test at UFC 300 to kick off this current chapter of her career. As dominant as ever, she smashed her way through former UFC champion Holly Holm en route to a second-round rear-naked choke.
Despite the big loss in Harrison, Davis sees her as an anomaly in the bigger promotional picture between the UFC and PFL.
“A marketing and promotion job, nobody better at that than Dana White,” Davis said. “So, how PFL markets and promotes is different. We don’t have a Dana White system here. We have a different marketing and promotion system. How we build our fighters, how we market and develop our product. We’re doing a pretty good job of that. This year, we’re 45 percent of UFC’s audience with $0. They spend $200 million a year (laughs). We do it differently.
“When you get to the promoter jobs, where dd [Paul] Hughes just sign? Last time I checked, it was PFL, not UFC. Where did Dakota [Ditcheva] sign? Where did Cédric Doumbé just re-sign? So, we haven’t lost a signing. Period. Why do fighters want to come here? We get to them earlier. We offer them more control. We offer them more flexibility. We’re winning.
“The classic promoter job of the UFC, developing talent, forming a relationship with talent, and making talent think you’re in their corner, guess who’s winning that game? It ain’t them. Fighters don’t want to be there, fighters aren’t signing there, and if fighters leave there, we’ll have more of them.”
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Lineup. Anderson Silva’s son and Olympic gold medalist featured on Silva vs. Sonnen undercard
The MMA Hour.
Journey to Champion: Islam Makhachev.
UFC Connected: Miesha Tate’s moment.
Invicta 18 Subs.
Islam Makhachev pre-UFC 302.
Adesanya training camp.
The Holloways.
Go to Twitter, use the #MorningReport hashtag, or find one of my tweets with it, and drop me a jam you’re currently really into. I’ll pick the best one alongside my daily choice and give you a shoutout! You can also share in the comments below — those are just harder to sift through sometimes!
Yawn.
Eraser.
Uppercut from hell.
Well, well, well.
Clacked.
Ouch.
Lorenz Larkin (25-8, 2 NC) vs. Alan Dominguez (11-6); PFL Sioux Falls, June 28
Mick Parkin (9-0) vs. Lukasz Brzeski (9-4-1); UFC 304, July 27
Tom Nolan (7-1) vs. Alex Reyes (13-4); UFC 305, August 18
Kayla would not need “validation” or to “follow” if she entered into MMA as part of a real division with real competition, which she still ran through twice. I know that’s not exactly PFL’s fault since it’s slim pickings at bantamweight and featherweight, plus timing, but still. We have to be realistic here. That is all.
Thanks for reading!
Poll
Did Kayla Harrison make the right choice leaving PFL for UFC?
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