When ask recently if Kayla Harrison was ready for the UFC, Dana White expressed a serious amount of doubt. Now Kayla responds to this, and addresses the idea of a fight between her and Amanda Nunes.
As a former Olympic judoka and two-time gold medalist, there was a lot of anticipation to see Harrison make her MMA debut. Since then, she has gone 9-0, completely demolishing all of the opponents at the PFL has been able to put in front of her.
Following her most recent win, there began an outpouring of cries to see her move to the UFC. However Dana White does not seem convinced that she is ready for the step up and competition, and expressed as much when asked about her chances of signing with the promotion.
Kayla Harrison Responds To Dana White
These comments from Dana White have gotten back to Kayla Harrison, and it’s safe to say that she is not agreed with his sentiments. Speaking in a recent interview, she was asked to respond to what the UFC president had to say, and she made it clear that they are on different pages.
Kayla believes that she’s ready for the step-up and competition, and has been saying as much for a while. So as long as Dana is ready to pay her what she is worth, she would be willing to faith anybody that the FC could put in front of her.
“I think that if Dana is ready to pay me a lot of money, I’ll make him a lot of money,” Harrison said.
“I have stated many times that I’m ready to face the best in the world… I don’t get to pick who I fight, it sounds like I get to create this super division of all these badass women and say hey fight me. I can control what I can control, and that’s my performance.”
Kayla Harrison Is Coming For GOAT Status
Another thing that Kayla Harrison has been very vocal about, is her desire to be considered the greatest of all time in women’s MMA. Currently, that distinction belongs to her teammate and UFC champ-champ Amanda Nunes.
Kayla has no problem with people calling Amanda the GOAT, and she even agrees that it’s true right now. However she is coming for that throne even though she has a ton of respect for her teammate.
“It doesn’t annoy me when people call her the GOAT at all. I’m going to say that’s false for a couple of reasons,” Harrison explained.
“Number one, she is the GOAT for now. Number two, she is beating the demolished opponents for quite some time. She has just been overwhelmingly dominant. And number three, I actually do like and genuinely respect Amanda. I think she’s a great champion inside the cage, outside the cage. I think she it’s another person that I look up to.
“But I take offense when people say to me… Like what am I supposed to be chasing, second best? What am I supposed to be? Oh you keep that GOAT status, I’m just going to be the best in the PFL, or I’m just going to be the best at 155. No, that’s not who I am, that’s never been who I am,” Horizon continued.
“I’ve made it clear from day one, I’m not in this to be mediocre. I’m not in this for a paycheck, I’m not in this for anything other than to chase greatness, continue building my legacy. I’ve already done things that people only dream of, and I did it twice. I literally won America’s first gold medal in the sport of Judo, and then I went and did it defended it. Nobody in the history of MMA right now can say that. Henry Cejudo can’t say that, DC can’t say that, nobody can say that. Only I can say that.
“So yes I’m chasing greatness. Yes I’m chasing greatness. And it has nothing to do with Amanda. It’s not personal towards Amanda. But of course I want to be the best, that’s just who I am.”
Not Another Colby-Masvidal Situation
Kayla Harrison goes on to explain that she has been very honest with her coaches at American Top Team about her goals within the sport. However she knows that Dan Lambert has already gone through enough drama on his team with the rivalry between welterweights Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal.
So Kayla says that she tries to be respectful to Amanda Nunes, not just because she has that respect for the champ-champ, but also because she respects Dan. She also knows that she and Amanda are a long ways away from fighting each other, so there is no reason to add to the drama.
“I try to be respectful with everything I say, because first of all I do respect (Amanda), that’s just who I am as a person. But we don’t want another Colby-Masvidal situation. Nobody wants that and I don’t think it would ever get to that,” Harrison said.
“It is what it is. (Lambert) knows what it is, (Amanda) knows what it is, I know what it is. We’re not there yet. We don’t even fight in the same promotion, we don’t even fight in the same weight class. We’re still a ways off from that, but of course everyone is thinking about it.”
Do you think we will be seeing Kayla Harrison in the UFC and the near future? How would a fight between her and Amanda Nunes go?
