Kayla Harrison spoke out following her PFL finals loss.
For three years in a row, PFL’s Kayla Harrison was on top. She was the champion of the PFL lightweight division and had not lost in her professional MMA career. Coming into the 2022 PFL finals, Harrison was a huge favorite. She was facing Larissa Pacheco, whom she had beaten twice before and set to headline the first-ever PFL PPV event. Harrison shockingly lost the bout to Pacheco by unanimous decision and in turn, lost out on the one million dollar prize.
Harrison was upset following the loss but she made time to speak to the media after the event.
“I didn’t get the result that I wanted tonight. Larissa was the better fighter. I don’t have an excuse, I don’t have a reason. I believe in my team, I believe in my preparation,” she said via MMA Fighting. “I feel like we did everything right in order to prepare for this fight, and it just didn’t go my way tonight. I made some tactical errors. A lot to work on. Failure is inevitable. Some days you’re the nail, and some days you’re the hammer. I feel like I’ve been the hammer for a while, and today, I experienced being the nail. This is an opportunity for me to grow as a fighter and as a person.”
Kayla Harrison reflects on her loss and what it means for her legacy
Harrison has become the face of The Professional Fighters League over the last few years. She is one of the biggest female MMA stars in the world and the fact that she has chosen to stay with PFL instead of signing with the UFC means she is being taken care of. She speaks a lot about her legacy and wants the biggest fights possible. She has called out current champions in other promotions such as Cris Cyborg and Amanda Nunes in the past. Now with her first loss so fresh, Harrison is down but not out.
“I just think that I talk a lot about legacy, and to me my legacy isn’t just what I do inside of the cage but how I carry myself outside of the cage,” Harrison said. “I think about what I want my kids to know, and I’m not ashamed of myself tonight. I’m proud. I went out there, I fought, I lost, but I can hold my head high and carry myself with dignity,” she said. “I think that a real champion shows up in the good times and the bad, and I want kids everywhere to know that, listen, I fell down tonight. I fell flat on my face. I lost in front of the whole world, and it hurts. It’s going to hurt for awhile. But it’s also an opportunity for growth, it’s an opportunity for me to become a better fighter, a better person, and that is part of my legacy. Not just the wins, but what I do during the losses as well.”
Harrison is slated to move past the PFL season format next year and just compete on the PPV portions of events. This may have been her last chance at winning the PFL million-dollar prize but will be making even more than ever next year. PFL has promised fighters a portion of PPV event sales.
“It’s different in the sense that there’s $1 million on the line, and I feel like I’m the face of the promotion, so I dropped the ball a little bit,” Harrison said. “But losing is losing. For me, it’s like I want to crawl out of my skin. I can’t stand it. So it’s painful.”
Harrison has only a few fights left on her PFL contract and now could have opened the door for a big rematch next year with Pacheco.
