Kayla Harrison earned her second straight $1 million championship check from PFL last night (Weds., Oct. 27, 2021), submitting Taylor Guardado in the second round of the PFL 10 main event in Hollywood, Florida (watch highlights here).
Obviously, the talk after the fight wasn’t so much about her win — which most expected to happen — but more about what her fighting future holds. The undefeated Harrison (12-0) broke down her options shortly after her big victory.
“I don’t know — I have a lot to think about,” she said during the post-fight press conference. “I have a family now. Obviously, I still want to be the best in the world. I want to continue to challenge myself and I feel like I can do that no matter where I go.”
Prior to last night’s fight, much was made about Dana White’s comments suggesting that Harrison should remaind in PFL and keep picking off the talent she’s beating now a little bit longer and collecting paychecks before she makes a move to UFC.
Naturally, those remarks didn’t sit too well with Harrison or PFL founder, Donn Davis. who fired back at UFC’s head honcho. But, since Harrison is now a free agent, it’s hard to believe that White and Co. won’t come to the table with a substantial offer.
And Harrison recently adopted her niece — giving her two daughters — so her growing family will be a huge factor in all her career decisions moving forward.
“I got two mouths to feed now and a family to take care of. So we will see what happens. I am just going to enjoy this for right now.”
The competition pool is starting to get a bit shallow for the Olympic gold medalist, so making a jump to another organization makes senses. And she would be going in for an immediate title shot, too, against either UFC’s Featherweight titleholder and current “champ-champ,” Amanda Nunes, or Bellator’s 145-pound queenpin, Cris Cyborg.
Those are the only two fights that make sense for Harrison, who has already competed at 145 pounds without issue. As far as making those fights happen, PFL is all for it, it’s the other two promotions that aren’t willing to play ball.
“We want to put on the best fights for the fans. The only people that don’t are the other promotions. They are worried,” founder Donn Davis told MMA Mania. “They like to say they are the best, but they are not. They have more time and their brands are more known, but they are not any better.”
Davis went on to reveal that he did offer Bellator head honcho Scott Coker a fight between Harrison and Cyborg to go down on Showtime under the Bellator banner and both promoter and fighter declined.
“I offered Scott Coker to fight Kayla. Cyborg and Scott said, ‘No.’ So on the ESPN rankings you see Cyborg at No. 3 and Kayla No. 9 in the pound-for-pound, it’s total B.S. Kayla would beat Cyborg today and they know it.
“I even told Scott we will put it in your media platform and he was still too scared,” Davis continued. “Kayla is willing to do it, we are willing to do it and we are willing to go on his media platform but they aren’t willing to do it.”
Is Dana White? Only time will tell.
For full PFL 10 results and play-by-play updates click here.