“I got the offer,” then what stopped Kayla Harrison from signing with the UFC

“I got the offer,” then what stopped Kayla Harrison from signing with the UFC

Kayla Harrison

Kayla Harrison is perhaps the hottest free agent ever seen in women’s MMA history or probably the hottest free agent in overall history after Fedor Emelianenko in his early 2010s after the latter left Pride FC and before he joined Strikeforce. Harrison, a judo prodigy and perhaps the greatest Judoka in American combat sports history, has previously secured 2 back-to-back gold medals in the 2012 London Summer Olympics and the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Summer Olympics.

In her transition to MMA, Harrison couldn’t be any more successful, her dominance in the sport is symbolic to UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey’s prime-time in the UFC. With a perfect record of 12-0, Harrison has finished 10 of her wins with an equal number of knockouts and submissions. All her fights have happened in PFL: Professional Fighters’ League which hosts a competition in terms of a tournament rather than the belt system.

Kayla Harrison thinks the UFC offer is “good for starting”

Kayla Harrison
Kayla Harrison

As Harrison has ended her contract with the PFL and has begun to test her free agency, it has been more than 3 months that her promotion hasn’t been decided yet. For her, PFL is still the frontrunner to sign her, yet again and this may most likely put her back into the same promotion. But it’s up to Harrison if she still wants to go to the same promotion even when the deal suits her perfectly.

So, Harrison talks about her future with MMA Junkie‘s Danny Segura, Harrison talks about dealing with the UFC. “I got the offer from the UFC,” said Harrison “It is I think timing-wise, just because of certain things that are going to happen with Juliana [Pena, current UFC bantamweight champion] and Amanda [Nunes, who fought and lost her belt to Pena at UFC 269] etc. etc., you know timing is kind of everything in this sport.”

So what’s next for Harrison? “PFL is definitely the front runner,” she says, “Bellator MMA, again we had spoken to I don’t know the exact details of what was said between Ali and them, but I do know what I had proposed so it doesn’t look like that’s gonna… we’ll see, we’ll see what happens.”

On being asked if she liked the offer from the UFC, Kayla Harrison immediately said “Yeah, it was a good starting offer,” and she concluded then and there.

What do you make of Kayla Harrison’s status on her free agency? Do you think she should get back to fighting in PFL if that is the front runner or does taking a contractual risk and compromising her stance of negotiation is important in the beginning in order to get exposure to competition from another promotion? Who do you think is the perfect competition for Harrison to give her the hardest fight?

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