Kayla Harrison’s biggest challenge may be weight class rather than opposition: Nobody in UFC, Bellator or PFL ‘scares me’

Kayla Harrison always knew her options in the women’s lightweight division were somewhat limited.

That’s why she’s long considered a more permanent move down to 145 pounds, where there are far more established opponents. She was scheduled to compete at featherweight at the upcoming PFL Championship card on Nov. 24 until former Bellator champion Julia Budd was replaced by UFC veteran Aspen Ladd on short notice.

As a result, Harrison will now fight at a catchweight of 150 pounds. But truth be told, the opponent never mattered much anyway.

“I don’t want to say I expected this, but it doesn’t matter,” Harrison told MMA Fighting about her change of opponents. “I focus on what I can control. I’m just looking for a fight, I don’t care who it is.

“Aspen Ladd has never been a champion, Julia Budd’s been a champion, but Aspen Ladd has been in the UFC, [and] Julia Budd has not. Aspen Ladd is younger and probably more up and coming. Julia Budd probably on her way out, but it doesn’t matter, because I beat them both. The one common denominator is ‘Kayla smash.’”

Harrison’s return comes almost exactly one year after the first loss of her career, a decision setback against reigning PFL champion Larissa Pacheco. It seemed the rematch would happen, considering Harrison already holds two previous wins over Pacheco, but the Brazilian got back into the season-long PFL tournament at 145 pounds after the promotion effectively eliminated the women’s lightweight division.

Cutting down to featherweight requires Harrison to make a lot of changes to her diet and training schedule, and she knows doing that four times in a year to join another PFL season would be nearly impossible. That said, she seems ready to call featherweight home in the foreseeable future.

Could that also serve as a precursor to an eventual move down to 135 pounds?

“I mean 135 will challenge me in ways like I’m going to have to lose a piece of me to be able to fight at 135 pounds,” Harrison said. “I think just structurally, I carry a lot of muscle. I’m already kind of lean, so I’m going to have to lose muscle. I’m going to have to change my entire lifestyle. I mean I have already done that to fight at 145.

“It’s crazy what happens when you take care of your body and eat properly and sleep and recover. I was a knucklehead when I was younger. But I have faith whatever is meant to be, will be.”

Harrison’s toughest challenge may be her weight class, because the two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo welcomes fights against anybody. That perhaps means a rematch with Pacheco in the PFL, or even a long awaited showdown against Bellator champion Cris Cyborg.

It also potentially includes a future in the UFC, but that would force Harrison to get down to bantamweight; the promotion has effectively shuttered the last remaining remnants of a largely dormant 145-pound division.

“Listen, have you ever known me to shy away from a fight or say no to fighting someone? No,” Harrison said. “It doesn’t matter what promotion you are. I don’t care. I believe in myself. I don’t care. Everyone’s like ‘well you lost.’ Yeah, guess what? Sometimes giants fall. Sometimes, s*** happens. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you stumble but it’s not what happens then. It’s what happens after you stumble. I’m not afraid of hard work. I’m not afraid of climbing back up. I’m not afraid of pushing myself and saying no, that’s not it, I’m not done. I’m still here. I’ve got something to prove. I’m not afraid of it. In fact, I relish it.

“Nobody in the UFC, nobody in Bellator and nobody in PFL scares me and I’m willing to put that on the line. I bet on myself.”

The most terrifying obstacle may be weight-cutting, but Harrison attacks that possible challenge with the same kind of ferocity as she does her fights.

“I don’t know the limits of my body in that term there yet,” she said. “I’ve started doing some research and taking some tests and doing some scans and seeing [what’s possible] but I don’t know and I don’t care.

“Because right now all I have to do is make 150 [pounds] and fight Aspen Ladd on Nov. 24. But I never say never. We’ll see what happens.”