After her extremely dominant promotional debut at UFC 300 this past Saturday, Kayla Harrison is already planning her next move, as she makes a claim about the champion.
The two-time Olympic Gold medalist finally made her UFC debut at UFC 300 where she utterly dominated former bantamweight champion, Holly Holm, and subsequently submitted her in the second round.
Kayla Harrison handed Holm her second loss in a row, and following the fight, UFC CEO Dana White said that he’d like the 42-year-old to retire at this stage of her career.
Harrison claims Raquel Pennington is ‘suddenly hurt’
Prior to the fight 135lb champion, Raquel Pennington, stated that she thought it’d be ‘unfair’ if Harrison is granted a title shot off the back of a debut win against Holm.
Despite that, the two-time PFL lightweight champion is one of the biggest names to sign with the promotion in the last decade, and because of her credentials, she is likely to get fast-tracked to a title shot.
Having said that, the 33-year-old may have to wait longer than she originally expected, as she has claimed that ‘Rocky’ Pennington is ‘suddenly hurt’.
“I heard that ‘Rocky’s’ hurt all of a sudden.” Harrison said on The MMA Hour. When asked if she knows what Pennington’s injury is, Harrison replied, “I don’t know, no.”
Kayla Harrison eyes an interim title fight against Julianna Pena
With the 35-year-old champion reportedly out injured, Harrison has turned her attention to former champion, Julianna Pena.
Pena has been inactive because she has been waiting for a title shot, but with Harrison’s dominant win this past Saturday, she may have found herself getting leapfrogged.
‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ last fought in July 2022 when she lost the title in her rematch with Amanda Nunes. The two were then booked for their trilogy in June of last year, but Pena withdrew from the fight because of injury.
She was then snubbed by the promotion when they made the vacant bantamweight title fight between Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva after Nunes retired.
“If she (Pennington) can’t fight right now, I’m happy to fight whoever this summer for a title.” Harrison added.
The Judoka was asked if she’d be interested in a number one contender fight, to which she replied: “Why not just an interim title then, and then I’ll unify it (against Pennington), and then I’ll fight Amanda (Nunes).”
Harrison went on to admit that she ‘loves’ the idea of fighting Julianna Pena at UFC 303, International Fight Week, in an interim title fight.
Kayla Harrison explains the feud between her and Amanda Nunes
Following Harrison’s successful UFC debut, ‘The Lioness’ Nunes posted a video on her social media, showing frustration that she wasn’t called out by Harrison, despite having retired last year.
“I think that Amanda’s own worst enemy is her mind. She got it in her head that I was coming for her. I think after she lost to Julianna (Pena) she thought that I was going to get in the cage that night and challenge her, which was not true, not even near true. She thought everyone on the team was against her.
“That wasn’t true, actually everyone on the team was trying their best to keep us in separate organizations even though I wanted to go. I think it left a bad taste in her mind, this not true image of what was happening behind the scenes.” Harrison added.
Amanda Nunes used to train at American Top Team with Kayla Harrison, but the Brazilian left and created her own team. Despite her recent retirement, she has hinted that she would like to return to fight Harrison.