Kayla Harrison always knew that fighting the scale of UFC 316 was the most difficult ever. And she barely made it.
In Saturday’s co-main event in Newark, New Jersey, Harrison completed the climb to the summit in a dominant way and submitted a Giuliana Pena in the third round to become the UFC Bantamweight champion. The two-time Olympic judo gold medalist took part in the title fight as a big favorite despite being a challenger. She grounded Peña with a specialist grappling and was not disappointed as she was rarely in danger.
One of the biggest questions heading on Saturday was whether Harrison could create the weight of the championship. She previously won a pair of PFL tournaments as a featherweight, and in her two UFC appearances she had to take advantage of the 1 pound allowance for non-title matches. But on Friday, she hit 135 pounds on the dot.
It wasn’t easy.
“I would have cut off my legs to reach this battle,” Harrison said at an evening postwar press conference. “Are there moments in your life where there are options? You have the option to say, ‘I’ve stopped.’ Or you have the option to dig your heels and Thursday night was definitely one of those moments for me who wanted me to be anywhere on the planet than that sauna.
“I’m not going to sugar coat it, it sucks ass. It’s not pretty, but you’ve got the real character coming out, you’ve been forged, I’ve been literally forged in the fire. Weapons.”
Harrison mentioned the issue of losing weight in a postwar interview with Joe Rogan. However, her team pushed her forward and now she is a UFC champion for seven years in her pro-fighting career.
“I think it says a lot more about my faith and my team than I do,” Harrison said. “I’m strong, but I’m not that strong. I talk about it a lot, but that last pound, especially this time the last two pounds, and that was God, that was the team he put around me.
“It’s Eric Pena, my weight cut expert, where everything about my coach keeps me positive, encourages me, and I really wanted to give up, and I thought, “What the heck are you doing? God and my team and he puts in my life, it’s something I don’t know about.
Harrison’s next matchup is against the best ever Amanda Nunes, her former training partner on the Florida American Top team. Harrison used Mike’s time after the war to call Nunes, who was sitting on the cageside and allowed to enter the cage for a showdown.
In most cases, the two only express respect and admiration for each other. It was also assumed that Nunes would have returned from retirement to challenge Harrison if she won at UFC 316.
When Nunes cut her gloves in 2023, she won 14 of her final 15 fights on multiple title defenses with both 135 and 145 pounds. Harrison once thought it was great to play Nunes in the second round, but he would put one of his belts on the line every time, and now he’s keen to jump on once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.
“I don’t know, but I’m open. I just want to fight,” Harrison said when asked if she thought she could still compete for the featherweight title. “I just want to fight. I definitely want to fight Amanda. She’s the best ever. I want to be the best ever. I’ve been wanting it for a long time. It’s not personal. There’s no weight we’ll fight.