Making her second outing under the UFC banner this Saturday at UFC 307 was Kayla Harrison, as she took on the number two ranked bantamweight Ketlen Vieira in a number one contender fight.
After signing with the promotion earlier this year, Kayla Harrison may have felt hard done by that she wasn’t granted a title shot after utterly dominating Holly Holm at UFC 300 this past April.
When the promotion booked a title fight between Raquel Pennington and Julianna Pena, Harrison made it her goal to pick up another win to make herself undeniable for the next title shot.
Kayla Harrison overcomes adversity against Ketlen Vieira at UFC 307
Throughout her storied career so far, more often than not Harrison has been entirely dominant in the cage, and with the addition of being able to use her elbows, she has turned into a different beast.
Despite that, she had to get through the tough test of Ketlen Vieira at UFC 307 to secure her title shot, and things may not have gone as simply as she would’ve liked.
The first battle for Harrison these days is making 136lbs on the scales, and once that is accomplished, she is expected to dominate whoever is put in front of her.
Going into this fight against the Brazilian, Harrison was a huge favorite to get her hand raised.
After an extremely dominant first round, it seemed as though the Olympic gold medalist would turn it up a notch in round two and may even get a finish. However, Vieira grew into the fight and began to pose a problem for the 34-year-old.
After a brief clinch exchange against the cage, the two females traded elbows, with Vieira’s landing with far more damage, leaving a huge hematoma on the forehead of Harrison. The former PFL lightweight champion then began to leak blood from her head, which was the first time she had ever bled in her MMA career.
- TERRIFYING KO: Joaquin Buckley calls out former welterweight champion for a number one contender fight after terrifying KO win at UFC 307
Kayla Harrison sends a message to the bantamweight champion
Fortunately for the ATT product, she overcame adversity and turned the tide of the fight again in round three, picking up the unanimous decision victory on the scorecards.
With Raquel Pennington and Julianna Pena facing off in the co-main event, Harrison made sure to send both fighters a message ahead of their big title fight.
“Ladies, enjoy it while you can cause the Queen is home and she’s coming for that f*cking gold,” she told Joe Rogan in the Octagon following her win.