Kayla Harrison has already answered her doubters in one regard going into her UFC 300 bantamweight bout versus Holly Holm.
Harrison weighed in at 136 pounds at Friday’s official weigh-in, making the 135-pound limit. (Non-title fighters are allowed to be one pound above the weight class.) Whether or not she could cut enough weight to make that limit was a concern heading into the fight.
As an Olympian, Harrison won gold medals in judo at the 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games competing at 171 pounds. As a professional in the PFL, she’s fought at 155 pounds for nearly her entire career, including at PFL 10 last November.
But Harrison’s coach, Mike Brown, had no doubt that she could cut what appears to be a considerable amount of weight in a matter of months.
“I thought she could do it,” Brown told MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin. “I thought that it’s a commitment, it’s not easy but it’s a weight cut.”
“But she really wasn’t cutting weight at 155,” he added. “She was fighting at lightweight and really she wasn’t a lightweight. That’s the weight class the PFL had. She was fighting girls much bigger than her in the PFL. I think her cutting some weight is actually going to be beneficial.”
Harrison is making her UFC debut against Holm on Saturday. As a professional, she has a 16–1 record with six knockouts and six wins by submission.
Holm is a former UFC bantamweight champion best known for handing Ronda Rousey her first defeat, ending Rousey’s undefeated streak and three-year run as titleholder, at 2015’s UFC 193. Her record is 15–6, including a 3–1 mark in her past five fights. In Holm’s last bout, a loss to Mayra Bueno Silva was overturned to a no contest due to Silva testing positive for a banned substance.
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