‘We Have A Ronda Rousey On Steroids’

Let’s hope Ali Abdelaziz’s latest promotional tagline doesn’t catch on as Kayla Harrison steps into the spotlight at UFC 300.

MMA manager Ali Abdelaziz has represented some of the biggest names in the UFC including Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, and Kamaru Usman. No one sells their fighters harder than Ali … but he may want to work on his sales pitch for Kayla Harrison coming into UFC 300.

Harrison is not only making her UFC debut against Holly Holm, she’ll be making her bantamweight debut as well. The two-time Olympic judo gold medalist has spent most of her MMA career competing at 155 pounds which … doesn’t exist as a women’s division in the UFC. Neither does 145. So she’ll be fighting at 135 for the first time in her career.

Given her size and muscle mass, many are wondering how Kayla will look after depleting herself to make weight. Abdelaziz dismissed the concerns and made Harrison’s gnarly cut sound more like a quick spring diet to get beach ready and not a serious body composition change.

“That’s the best thing overall for her life as an individual. Losing all this extra weight, feeling good about yourself, looking great,” he said in an interview with Kevin Iole. “She look like amazing and healthier. Right? She’s close to weight, she’s not far from it.”

“She have a lot of muscles,” he added. “And people who lose weight? Water inside the muscle. People who are muscular, it’s a lot easier to lose weight than people who have fat. She’s got a great team around her, Mike Brown, a lot of other people. Everybody, don’t worry about her weight. Everybody using her weight as excuse to not fight her or not going to fight if she miss weight or whatever.”

“At the end of the day, she’s a two-time Olympic champion, two-time PFL champion, never missed weight, make 145 during COVID in her room, you know what I’m saying?”

Abdelaziz stressed that it’s the fight we should be talking about, and Kayla’s impending rise to superstardom when she wins.

“She will make weight and listen, at the end of the day, just tune in,” he said. “She will be one of the biggest stars, she does what she have to do against Holly Holm. She’s very tough, very seasonal, she’ll go there and smash her. She’ll get a title shot, become a UFC champion. We have a Ronda Rousey on steroids, that’s what we have.”

Okay, I get what he’s saying and that’s clearly a figure of speech. But it’s not a great one to use in a sport where there are plenty of people on steroids, and plenty more ready to throw steroid allegations around when they see someone Harrison’s size. It’s bad. Not “Wanderlei Silva in a dress” bad, but Kayla definitely doesn’t want that s— catching on with classy UFC fans.