Kayla Harrison did not dance around Ronda Rousey’s recent comments. She went straight at them.
Rousey has been promoting her Netflix comeback fight against Gina Carano while also talking about her old judo days. Speaking to Death Row MMA, Harrison, who won Olympic gold in judo in both 2012 and 2016, said one of those stories simply did not happen the way Rousey told it.
Explaining the judo setup first, Harrison said:
“So in judo, we have this thing called Ippon Dori. You’re out in the middle and it’s live gos, so if you throw, whoever wins stays. Say you and I are going, it’s like king of the hill, last man standing. So there’s no time limit. We could have a 30-second go or 30 minutes.”
Then she turned directly to Rousey’s version of events and did not soften it. Harrison said:
“So she’s online telling this story about how, ‘Yeah, I had a lot of pride so I’d be out there for an hour with these girls and then finally a 90-kilo guy would take pity on me and come out and throw me.’ Dude, that is literally a blatant f*cking lie. Now you’re just making sh*t up. That never happened.”
Rousey’s comeback has already been pulling serious attention, and Harrison’s remarks only turned the heat up more.
Kayla Harrison also blasted the sales pitch around Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano
Harrison was not done there. She also went after the way Rousey has been selling the Carano fight.
Mocking the hype, Harrison said:
“Best card in the history of fighting, haven’t you heard?”
She followed that with an even harder shot at Rousey’s claim about the matchup itself, saying:
“She said this is the best female fight of all time. How old is Gina? She hasn’t fought in 17 years. Like, shut up.”
That part is hard to argue with on the facts. Carano turns 44 soon and has not fought since 2009. Rousey’s last MMA fight was her loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207, and that was nearly a decade ago. So even if the names are huge and the nostalgia is real, Harrison is clearly not buying the idea that this should be treated like some untouchable all-time competitive matchup. Carano’s return has already been framed around the long break from the sport, and Harrison’s point was basically that no amount of promotion changes the calendar.
Harrison is currently recovering from neck surgery and is still expected to defend her bantamweight title later this year. We already covered Harrison’s return timeline and where Amanda Nunes fits into it. A fight with Rousey does not look realistic any time soon, but that did not stop her from unloading on what she sees as fake mythology and overcooked promotion.
Harrison challenged the judo story directly, called it a lie, and then trashed the way Rousey has been hyping the Carano fight.
