Via Sky Sports
Kayla Harrison signs with UFC, scheduled to face Holly Holm at UFC 300
Former PFL champion Kayla Harrison is on the move. Late Tuesday night UFC CEO took to his Instagram page to announce that the company has signed Harrison, a former Olympic gold medalist and two-time Women’s Lightweight Champion back in 2019 and 2021 with the Professional Fighters League.
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In addition to the announcement of signing Kayla Harrison, White also added that she has already been booked for her first fight with the promotion, as she will take on former bantamweight champion Holly Holm at UFC 300 in April. Most notably in the announcement is that Harrison will be competing in the UFC in the women’s bantamweight division, which is significant seeing how Harrison has never fought professional in any weight class lower than 145 pounds.
Back in 2020, Harrison defeated Courtney King in a featherweight contest by second-round TKO and then immediately jumped back into PFL’s 155-pound lightweight division upon her return to the promotion. The addition of the former champion brings a jolt to the division that lost long-standing champion Amanda Nunes to retirement, and saw Raquel Pennington defeat Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 297 for the vacant title. Former champion Julianna Pena is likely the next title contender to face Pennington, but an impressive showing against Holm could catapult her right into a title fight in her second fight in the UFC.
Kayla Harrison has gone 15-1 in her professional career with her lone loss coming to reigning PFL lightweight champion Larissa Pacheco, who has won the title consecutively the last two years. Harrison would bounce back from that loss and get back in the win column in her lone fight in 2023, beating former UFC fighter Aspen Ladd by unanimous decision.
The fight would ultimately become the final fight for Harrison during her tenure with the PFL, as she reportedly only had one fight remaining and many believed that fight would take place against former Bellator champion, Cris Cyborg. Both women were outspoken in their repeated callouts of each other, with Harrison taking aim at Cyborg in her post-fight interview following the win over Ladd.
Professional Fighters League has a press conference scheduled for Wednesday to promote their upcoming ‘Bellator vs PFL’ event which takes place on February 24, in Saudi Arabia, and there are sure to be questions as to how and why Kayla Harrison made the move to join the UFC.
