Olympic judo gold medalist and Women’s MMA superstar Kayla Harrison is checking out the free agent market and looks forward to testing herself in a new weight division.
In her recent interview with ESPN former two-time Professional Fighters League, women’s lightweight champion told Marc Raimondi that she is ‘considering’ a move down to the bantamweight division and that she’s decided to hire a chef and looks to bring a nutritionist to check if it even physically possible.
During her MMA career, Harrison fought at lightweight and once at featherweight so dropping to bantamweight would be a challenging task. She admitted that she herself isn’t sure if it’s possible to reach 135 pounds weight limit in a healthy manner.
On the other side, a drop to bantamweight would present her with a wider selection of future opponents like Julianna Pena, who beat her teammate Amanda Nunes at UFC 269. Harrison admitted that she is considering the drop with a potential Pena fight in mind and she is happy to hear that current UFC Women’s Bantamweight champion is willing to move up to 145 if the promotion will meet her financial demands as it would mean less weight to cut in order to arrange their meeting.
As far as her promotional association goes Harrison said that she hasn’t made a final decision yet. There were reports stating that the PFL is in the pole position in the race for her services but in her own words, it’s not the case any longer. What’s more, there are still things happening behind closed doors so she’s not entirely sure what’s going to happen. The only thing for sure is that she will sign “wherever is best for Kayla.”
Her goal is to be the best women’s fighter in the history of combat sports, but after adopting her sister’s children last year she made changes to her priorities list. Three years ago she was only focused on her legacy, but now, for a mother of two, security comes first. Still, Harrison will look for a way to have security and build her legacy.
